YORK City Knights boss James Ford could barely contain his delight after an almost second-string side out-performed old bogey team Barrow Raiders to win 32-16 and reach the fifth round of the Challenge Cup.

Ford rang the changes for the tie, seemingly prioritising their Championship league campaign, but the new-look line-up built a lead, held off a Raiders fightback and secured victory late on to go into the hat for Tuesday night’s draw.

They did so despite losing new recruit Nick Rawsthorne to a hamstring pull in the warm-up and fellow loanee Conor McGrath to a shoulder injury in the first half.

It was also York’s first victory at Craven Park since 2004 – putting to bed an old hoodoo.

“I was really pleased,” said Ford, who handed Kevin Brown a debut at full-back and gave Mike Kelly his first outing of the season.

“There were some players out of position, some young players who haven’t played for a while, some who have not played at this level before.

“Throw in the journey and then the late change to the outside backs – I’m really pleased to be in the hat for the next round.

“I have more clarity about where one or two individuals are. They’ve shown they’re very capable of coming into this side and helping to take the team forward. I’m going back to Yorkshire a very, very happy coach.”

Ford had left out stellar names such as Connor Robinson, Ben Cockayne, Liam Salter, Graeme Horne and Ronan Dixon, citing niggling injuries for all of them. St Helens loanee Joe Batchelor was also unavailable.

Said Ford: “It was a new spine of the team – Dave Petersen at nine, Jubby (Will Jubb) and Matty Marsh in the halves and Kev Brown at full-back. It might not have gone that well for them but they were really good, especially Kev Brown.

“He’s been patient. He’s come to us from St Helens and he showed some promise in pre-season but he’s gone up to a completely different level. I’m really pleased with what he did. He’s certainly done himself no harm going forward.

“He’s full of energy, he’s hard to handle, he got us some momentum, won us some ruck speed and got us plenty of metres.”

He added: “Most importantly, there were some young blokes out there, blokes who haven’t played an awful lot of rugby, and they were under the pump in the second half.

“Barrow fired into us and were the best team for 20 minutes. We were on the back foot, and a lot of those players wouldn’t have been in that situation and come through the other side without somebody like Graeme Horne or Ben Cockayne telling them what to do and managing the scenario and managing the game.

“For them to be in, get through it and win the game fills me full of confidence and they will grow from it.

“I can’t stress how proud I am of some of these players.

“Take Marcus Stock. This time last year he was playing at Hemel getting pumped most weeks. He’s come here and been outstanding. He’s 22 and you think about how far he’s come on in the last six months. Good for him – well done.”

Ford admitted he now had new selection headaches in the coming weeks.

“Yes and good on them (for providing those headaches). I don’t want an easy job or an easy time picking the 17,” he said.

“I want them to make it as difficult as they can, and they have.

“I’m so chuffed some of these boys have played at this level.”