YORK City Knights coach James Ford had high praise for former Heworth amateur Liam Jackson after his encouraging competitive debut for the pro club.

The York & District ARL Player of the Year created two tries and had a hand in several of the other 10 as the Knights comfortably won 64-4 at Cumbrian community club Askam in the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup third round.

The draw for the fourth round, at which stage Championship clubs enter, takes place on Tuesday night.

“I thought Liam had a really good game," said Ford of the 23-year-old, who earned a deal with his hometown League One team after a successful trial over pre-season.

“He’s come to us with an awful lot to learn but he’s got a superb attitude and he was good. He made a couple of line breaks and asked questions and his play fives were tidy.

“There are still areas to improve but we’re really happy with where he is compared to where he was, and it excites me where we can get him.”

The Knights, meanwhile, are hopeful the injury suffered by hooker Harry Carter will not be as serious as initially feared.

Carter enjoyed an excellent cameo off the bench but it was cut short by a challenge which was put on report by referee Brad Milligan.

He was helped off the field with apparent damage to his left leg and, after being seen by the doctor, remained in the dugout throughout the half-time interval and the second period with his leg up. However, he later walked unaided to the team bus.

He will be assessed further this week.

On his team's comfortable win as a whole, Ford said: "I thought it was a professional performance. It was not an outstanding performance but we did what we had to do.

"We kicked well, we completed high and tried to play at a high tempo. We put Askam under pressure and on the back of that we were capable of asking questions on their edges and we posted plenty of points."

Asked if he felt it was a straightforward victory, Ford said: "No it wasn't. We invested heavily energy-wise in the first 10-15 minutes to play quick and keep the ball in play, and that paid dividends in the back end of both halves.

"Sometimes we have to be patient in building pressure and taking away the opposition's energy, and we did that. Our ball movement and shape asked them all sorts of problems."

Askam got their sole try two minutes into the second half.

"In the 10 minutes after half-time we were a long way off where we need to be," said Ford. "I was really unhappy with that period.

"You have to give Askam credit - Dave Clark (their coach) offered words of encouragement and they came out and had a real crack at us.

"But I was disappointed with our attitude and had to put Tim (Spears) and Siddo (Chris Siddons) back out there, and when we did we rectified that."