“ALMOST a good performance” was how James Ford assessed York City Knights’ 30-6 victory over Sheffield Eagles.

York secured their spot in the second round of the Betfred Challenge Cup with a convincing win at Doncaster's Keepmoat Stadium, in the club's first competitive match in over a year.

Despite the comprehensive look of the scoreline, the Knights were guilty of producing excessive errors as well as missing some chances late on.

Head coach Ford insists that there is still plenty for his side to work on.

He said: “I’m really pleased to go through, obviously. I thought it was almost a good performance, I don’t think we were quite at the levels that we are aspiring to be at, although there were plenty of positives.

“We scored some nice tries, we hung in there when Sheffield were on top, our contact was good, we ran hard and when our contact was quick, Sheffield struggled to handle us.

“But, for me, on too many occasions we let the pressure off or we pumped up Sheffield’s tyres by giving a penalty away in possession or challenging a catcher in the air or not taking chances.

“I’ve only seen it once live but I thought there were four clear cut chances where we should have scored, so we’ll have to have a look at them to see what we can do in our practise to make sure we take more of those chances going forward.”

Arguably the turning point of the contest came when York struck two quick-fire tries just before half-time through Kriss Brining and Ben Jones-Bishop.

Ford singled out his four interchanges - Brining, Marcus Stock, James Green and Joe Porter - for their individual efforts in that decisive passage.

“The interchanges came on and did a really good job, they sped the game up did Stocky, Greeny and Ports," said Ford.

“I thought that they were really physical and hard to handle."

The latter of those tries saw front rower Stock race through a gap in the Eagles defence and set away Jones-Bishop from halfway with a calm pass.

On that try, Ford added: “Greeny carried the ball really well from kick-off and Ports carried it in behind really quick and then Stocky showed great speed, footwork and skill and composure for a front-rower.

“And then Bish did what he’s paid to do and finished it off.

“He (Stock) might go under the radar to some people, but he’s one of the first names on the team sheet for us.

“He is intelligent, athletic, he’s got good footwork and good skill. He’s very keen to improve and there’s a massive future for Marcus Stock.

“We’re delighted to have him.”

Unfortunately, Brining's game was cut short early in the second half when the hooker pulled up with a hamstring injury and immediately left the field afterwards, with Will Jubb playing out the rest of the half at nine.

Ford said: “Kriss made a break, hurdled a defender and he’s got a hammy tweak. He’s walked off the field and there (in the dug-out) he’s walking with a bit of discomfort.

“I’m not an MRI machine, but I’ve had a few hammy injuries, so he’s probably going to be unavailable for next week, that’s for sure. But we’ll see how that settles down in the next two to three days.”