THOUGH York City's win at Warrington Rylands was not the easiest on the eye, manager Steve Watson believes that will be forgotten if his side can keep going in the FA Cup.

The second qualifying round trip to Rylands was a tough one for City, who battled with the elements on a very rainy day and a home side desperate to make their mark in the competition.

On another day, they might very well have. Rylands were more than competent on and off the ball, and came within the width of a post of scoring a second-half penalty, which could have changed the course of the game.

As it was, Sean Newton's free kick finish from the end of the first half proved enough.

City were not bereft of other chances on goal, though - Jake Cassidy had a header very well saved by Graeme McCall in the second half, to name probably the best of them - but it certainly was not the commanding performance fans were treated to at Notts County last week.

"It's one we've got past now," Watson said. "The lads will have got a lot of fitness out of that.

"Even though it probably wasn't brilliant on the eye at times, if you look at the amount of ground covered by Jake Cassidy, Olly just behind him, but if you look at the amount of effort from Akil, Paddy, Woodsy - even at the end when Scotty Barrow broke and ran nearly 100 yards to put the ball over the bar - which was unfortunate for him - the work rate was great.

"The quality on a difficult day was not where we wanted to be but you have to win in all different kinds of ways and if we have a good cup run, nobody will remember the out-and-out performance of today.

"It was a really difficult game," he added.

"First of all, I want to give a great deal of credit to Rylands, I thought they were outstanding and I want to wish them all the best for the season.

"It was one of the biggest games in their history and they came out fighting. They've done the club proud.

"On our part, it was a difficult afternoon. We didn't cope with things in our box brilliantly. I don't think we got first contact many times and when we did, I don't think it was cleared with any kind of clarity.

"We were broken on a few times. The shape was good they had, they sat in with a four and a five, and if we weren't playing quickly in the first half, they were back in shape and they broke on us at pace.

"But Sean hit the first free kick well and the second went in the back of the net.

"They had their chances, we had ours. Obviously the big point for them would be the penalty."