YORK City Knights got off the mark in Kingstone Press League One with a nine-try show at minnows Oxford – but boss James Ford was far from happy.

The head coach revealed he gave his charges a half-time rollicking after they were pegged back to 18-16 at the break and, while he was happier with the second-half show, he still declared the overall performance “unacceptable”.

Ford, conversely, defended Pete Aspinall despite seeing the substitute second-row sent off on 68 minutes for punching Nathan Kitson, leaving the Oxford full-back with a suspected broken cheekbone and leaving himself facing suspension.

That fracas began with a set-to between York captain James Haynes and Oxford playmaker Adam Brook, who were also sin-binned, leaving the visitors with 11 men playing 12, but they stepped up a gear thereafter to turn a wavering 30-20 lead into a 44-20 victory.

Said Ford: “The first half simply wasn’t good enough. We did not carry the ball hard enough or tackle hard enough. We lacked desire.

“The second half was more like it but it was still not at our standards.

“We’re champions of this league but to come out and carry the ball like that was not the stuff of champions – it was unacceptable.”

Ford nevertheless reckoned that was Oxford’s best performance this year, with counterpart Tim Rumford agreeing had his side played like that last week they would have beaten league newcomers Coventry Bears.

Their previous game had also ended in Challenge Cup defeat to amateurs Leigh Miners Rangers, who host the Knights in round five next week.

Ford said: “I’ve got to give credit to Oxford, who carried the ball with intent and defended well. Their aggression and skill were better than what they’ve served up previously. Tim deserves credit for what he’s doing down there.

“However, I expect a response from my team at Leigh next week. I’m not the kind of person to accept mediocrity in terms of intent, desire and aggression.”

On Aspinall’s red card and Haynes’ yellow, Ford said: “I did not see how it all started but James Haynes is not a player to instigate violence on a rugby field.

“Pete Aspinall has got involved as James was outnumbered (in the fracas). I’m not condoning what Pete did but the players stick together as a group so I understand why he did what he did.”

Ford also said Josh Tonks - who scored the opening try inside two minutes when starting the game in the second row and had a second-half stint out of position at half-back after a reshuffle caused by hooker Harry Carter’s head injury - was exempt from any criticism.

“Josh was one player who escaped the half-time spray,” he said.

“He carried the ball aggressively, did good stuff in defence and did his bit organising. I thought he was outstanding and, when we moved him to half-back, he made a decent fist of that as well.”

Rumford, who took over at Oxford after leaving Heworth ARLC in the off-season, said: “We came out a bit like rabbits in the headlights against quality opposition.

“It took us 15 minutes to get into a flow but York had scored a couple of tries by then. When we got into the game we scored and we then started to believe in ourselves.

“We’ve got group of players who need to play at their maximum to be competitive and when we go away from that a quality team like York will punish you.

“If we had started better it could have been different. At 30-20 down, there was that scuffle and, while we got the extra man, we lost our half-back (sin-binned) who was playing well and our full-back (injured) who was playing well, and that made a difference.”

Rumford was also angered by the refereeing – leaving his seat in the stands to speak to the match commissioner on the sidelines after six consecutive York penalties and two York tries after half-time. The match commissioner later went onto the pitch to advise referee Scott to stop the clock while he was handing out the cards.

Rumford said: “At times the lack of consistency can be frustrating.

“At one point, the match commissioner went onto the field of play to brief the official, and that speaks for itself.”