YORK City Knights boss James Ford reckons his side can take confidence from their opening-day efforts in the Betfred Championship - regardless of the result.

The underdog Knights lost 14-0 to odds-on title favourites Toronto, a side littered with NRL and Super League pedigree, but they trailed only to a single try until the 69th minute when Matty Russell scored a controversial touchdown in the corner, before the visitors sealed victory with a third score in the final minute.

Ford has now called on his team to replicate their defensive efforts in the coming months believing their display proves they can not only compete in this division following promotion last year but also get better on the back of it.

He also says, however, that they don’t want "pats on the back just for trying hard" – they want to win matches.

“There are mixed emotions. Obviously I’m disappointed not to win a game that we were in for a very long time,” said Ford.

“But I’m very proud of how well the club promoted the game and how well the city got behind us, and the effort and endeavour from my players was top notch.

“Toronto are a very good team and they're going to create chances and when they did we worked even harder to counter that. I’m really proud of how the players kept turning up for one another."

He added: “Toronto are the benchmark in the Championship. I have a room full of disappointed players but a room full of confident players knowing we can improve from that and learn from that.

“We’re not here just to get a pat on the back for trying hard. We’re here to win and unfortunately we weren’t quite good enough and the best side took the points.

“We need to have a look at our performance and take it up a level because we’re not far away.

“We have to hit those standards and improve on those standards every week because we are playing quality sides with quality coaches.”

The Knights struggled to create openings but Ford reckoned that had as much to do with the Wolfpack’s defence as anything else.

“Toronto are a class side and defensively they were superb,” he reasoned. “We asked questions but their defensive intensity and mental awareness was a level up.

“They’re a good team. Good players don’t miss tackles or make defensive errors or gift chances.”

Intimating that, unlike in League One, there are no easy games in the Championship, he added: “If people think we’re going to get 30 chances a game this season, that won’t happen. We’re playing good sides.

“We created some half-chances but rather than us not taking these chances I’m going to praise Toronto’s efforts to get back and stop them.”

On his own team’s rearguard efforts in a low-scoring contest, he said: “It has to be a big defensive effort because they have outstanding individuals and they play expansive rugby league. They ask questions all over the field and they have big fellas in there as well. They’re a very good side, make no bones about that.

“I was pleased with a lot of what we did and we will look for areas where we can be better as we always do.”

The Bootham Crescent faithful were screaming for a forward pass prior to Russell’s decisive try and referee Gareth Hewer was duly booed off the field at the end. But Ford conceded the Wolfpack deserved their victory.

Alluding to the fact rugby league is still relatively new to Toronto, Ford said wryly: “For any Canadians – and I hope there were a few watching because we want to expand the game - just to clarify, in rugby league, generally you have to pass the ball backwards. That should not confuse you, that try being awarded.”

He added: “Sometimes officials get things wrong and I think that could be one of those occasions.

“We’ve lost 14-0 and that try was from a clear forward pass. Everybody in the ground saw it but then people make mistakes. The touch judge has to make that call.

“But it has not cost us the game. Toronto deserved to win – they were marginally the better side. Hopefully, though, decisions like that will even themselves out in the near future.”