York City Knights 22 Catalans Dragons 34

Knights: Moss 9, Robson 8, Butler-Fleming 8, Hey 8, Mazive 9, Cockayne 9, C Robinson 9, A Robinson 9, Ellis 9, Siddons 9, Batchelor 9, Scott 8, Spears 8. Subs (all used): Hawksworth 8, Normington 8, Ronan Dixon 9, Porter 9.

Tries: Porter 34, 38; Moss 54; Batchelor 79.

Conversions: C Robinson 38, 54, 79 (3/4).

Penalties: none.

Sent off: none.

Sin-binned: none.

Catalans: Mead, Broughton, Gigot, Duport, Yaha, Langi, Albert, Maria, McIlorum, Moa, Bird, Garcia, Batieri. Subs (all used): Aiton, Bousquet, Margalet, Simon.

Tries: Yaha 6; Batieri 22; Simon 40; Albert 48; Broughton 72, Bird 75.

Conversions: Albert 22, 40, 48, 75 (4/6).

Penalties: Albert 62 (1/1).

Sent off: none.

Sin-binned: none.

Man of the match: Joe Porter was the sponsors’ man of the match and Connor Robinson got the official award from the BBC. Andy Ellis and Kieren Moss had to be up there as well. Our nod went to two-try Porter too - the local lad did his home town proud.

Referee: Chris Kendall (Huddersfield) – the “Super League you’re having a laugh” chants could have been for him as much as top-flight strugglers Catalans, and he was duly booed off with a steward’s escort. If part-timers York had any chance they needed to get their fair share of 50-50 calls and some 40-60s and 30-70s too, but it was actually the full-timers that got most of them.

Penalty count: 8-14

Half-time: 10-16

Weather: pleasant enough after a bit of morning rain but bit windy.

Attendance: 3,081

Moment of the match: Not long ago, Joe Porter was playing for York Acorn in the National Conference League. Indeed he was watching his old mates in action on Saturday against Shaw Cross Sharks. Twenty-four hours later, he was scoring two tries in four minutes against Super League side Catalans Dragons. The first took some scoring as he scrambled to the line. The second was a cracker, charging through, to level the scores at 10-10 and have Knights fans for a time in dreamland.

Gaffe of the match: York’s goal-line defence was not quite up to scratch a few times after referee Chris Kendall had piggybacked the full-timers up the field.

Gamebreaker: York were right back in it when Kieren Moss cut the deficit to 22-16 before the hour mark, but the penalty count then went further away from them and so did the scoreline as the Dragons benefited with a two-pointer and two more tries.

Match rating: It was easy to see why Catalans Dragons are struggling in Super League and why York are doing well two tiers below, and, aided by a superb atmosphere created by the home fans, it all made for a cracking Challenge Cup tie which was in the balance probably until the last 10 minutes. In the end, the big story did not happen but the BBC nevertheless made the right choice to come to Bootham Crescent, and hopefully it will all have boosted the Knights’ profile even though they didn’t get through.