JAMES FORD said he doesn’t care whom his York City Knights side land in the next round of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup – he’s just grateful to be in the hat after a below-par show from his troops.

The Knights won 20-4 at rank outsiders South Wales Scorpions to go into the hat for Tuesday night’s fourth-round draw, the stage at which Championship clubs enter the competition.

But, given the way they turned possession over too regularly, they needed a stoical defensive effort to limit the hosts to one try before bagging two touchdowns in the last 13 minutes to seal a result which for some time looked in the balance.

It was a far cry from the two big league wins over the Welshmen last season and the 78-10 thrashing of London Skolars in last week’s season opener.

“I’ve had no thoughts on who we’d fancy in the next round - I just focused on this game - and, after seeing that (performance) I’m just glad we’re in the next round,” said head coach Ford “I’m not fussed who we get. The draw will bring what it brings. I’m happy to play whoever comes out of the hat.”

Ford described the performance, like last week, as “mixed”, saying his side were outstanding in defence but guilty of forcing passes and trying to over-play at the wrong times.

“We had spoken a lot about improving our defensive effort and I thought we were outstanding in that regards - but we needed to be as we gave South Wales that much possession and territory,” he said.

“I was really pleased with our defensive performance but our attacking play was a mile off where it needs to be.

“Our contacts were ferocious at times and our physicality throughout the game was good, and our processes were right.

“I was happy with that, especially given the amount of territory and possession we gave them.

“In possession, though, we overplayed at times, perhaps not recognising the scenario we were in or adapting to the conditions.

“We value the little things as much as the big things. There’s not an overly large amount of pressure on the players to always do eye-catching things. They just need to do their job and if they do that well they’ll be in the team. I don’t ask them to flip out forced passes.

“But we’re a young team and it’s only game two. We didn’t get carried away last week when we were very good with the ball and we won’t get carried this week when we were not as good with the ball. It’s only game two, we’ll get better.”

He added: “We coughed the ball up a lot but we reacted well under that pressure and stuck to the systems, and we didn’t concede one single line break all game.

“A less mature team, a less composed team would have lost that game, but we found the character to hang in there and come away as deserved winners in the end.”

Victory at Mountain Ash was marred by a second-half back injury to skipper James Haynes but Ford was hopeful he would be fit for next week’s iPro Sport Cup quarter-final against Newcastle Thunder. Haynes’ exit also saw Kane Riley switch from wing to full-back and immediately score a try to put his side 10-4 ahead.

Riley, like several team-mates, was not error-free, though, and Ford said of his new recruit who has impressed him greatly in training: “I thought he was okay – he looked sharp – but if he is to be a regular he needs to improve his performance.”

Another debutant, 18-year-old Liam Richmond was restricted to a cameo role off the bench late on, while fellow forward Jack Pickles had a decent first outing for ten months, despite suffering cramp in the second half.

Said Ford: “You make substitutions appropriately to how the game’s going and we lost a couple of people with knocks and some performances were a bit off, and that ate into Liam’s minutes. But I thought he did okay and he will get better for the experience.

“Jack did some good things defensively and carried the ball well. His efforts were obvious. I was happy with what Jack brought to the team.”