10:36am Thursday 11th March 2010
By Peter Martini
CARETAKER-BOSS Chris Thorman was happy with a decent job done after his much-changed line-up took York City Knights into the knockout stages of the Northern Rail Cup.
The Knights, showing 11 changes to the 17 that had seen off Gateshead in the Challenge Cup third round on Sunday, beat London Skolars 34-12 to secure the club’s top-four spot in group two and a place in the quarter-finals.
It had the hallmarks of a routine game at Huntington Stadium but player-coach Thorman – who sat on the sidelines for the first time this term as several first-choice players were rested – was satisfied with the outcome and said a number of players had done enough to put themselves in the reckoning for a place in the team for Sunday’s Championship One trip to Workington.
He said: “That (progression) was the main thing. We’ve won the game and that’s what we wanted.
“The performance was a bit scratchy again but that’s maybe expected with the number of changes we’ve made. We’re in the next round and that’s the important thing.”
As for the players who came into the team, he said: “We do have a large squad, and a strong squad, and have to give people opportunities. There were a number of players I was pleased with who will be pressing for starts on Sunday.”
Thorman did say, however, that his team have to reduce the number of penalties conceded, after they had a man sin-binned for the second game in a row and lost out 10-5 on the penalty count.
“No disrespect to the recent opposition, but if we concede that many penalties against stronger teams then we might come up short,” he said.
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