York City Knights score 12 tries in Challenge Cup romp – match report and pix

York City Knights ran in 12 tries to thrash Askam in the third round of the Challenge Cup on Sunday (Feb 25).

The tie was a potential banana skin for York. National Conference Division Two team Askam last reached this stage of the cup in 2001 and beat York Acorn

The Knights were a class above though, as 11 different players managed to get on the score sheet to wipe the floor with the Cumbrian side.

It was the Knights’ first win of the season after suffering last second heartbreak in the 22-20 loss to Bradford Bulls last week.

Tries on tap

Sporting their new black and yellow away kit, the Knights stamped their dominance on the game early, as Adam Robinson’s strength saw him open the scoring in the 12th minute.

Five minutes later, Liam Jackson skipped over two tackles and set up Chris Siddons to score a second.

Jackson then found Mike Kelly with a clever short ball and he crashed over on a good angle from close-range.

The fourth try was something special, as interchanges between Connor Robinson, Joe Batchelor and Brad Hey saw Batchelor cross to score his third try in two games.

Judah Mazive sent an inch-perfect kick for Keiren Moss to score the Knight’s fifth on 33 minutes, before York made it 36-0 with Mazive diving into the corner to score his first Knights try.

York went into half-time with some bad news, as Carter was forced off with what looked like a serious leg injury, but the club are hopeful that the injury isn’t as bad as first anticipated.

Just getting started

Askam had their best spell of the game just after half time, when four penalties helped the hosts gain ground and Tom Wilkinson got on the end of a low kick to score. Tyson converted and Askam had something to shout about.

York slowly asserted their dominance once more and on 55 minutes, Jake Normington crashed through after some nice play between Jackson and Moss.

Standby the Brad Hey show. The winger scored the first of three after taking an inside pass from Mazive to score. Moss sent him through for a straightforward second moments later.

Two tries in a minute came with 5 minutes remaining, as Ash Robson scored one and then set up Hey’s hatrick of tries straight from the kick off.

Joe Porter rounded off the scoring with the last action of the game, after out muscling tackle efforts from Askam to crash over.

Connor Robinson scored eight of the 12 conversions resulting from the tries, including some incredible efforts from the touchline.

A professional performance

Knights Head Coach James Ford was delighted with the win, labelling it as a ‘professional performance’.

Ford gave six player’s their debuts, including ex Heworth amateur Liam Jackson, who the head coach was particularly happy with.

Speaking on the team’s mammoth victory, Ford said:

I thought it was a professional performance. It wasn’t an outstanding performance, but we did what we had to do.

We kicked well, we competed high and tried to play at a high tempo. We put Askam under pressure and on the back of that, we were capable of asking questions on their edges. We posted plenty of points.

Sometimes we have to be patient in building pressure and taking away the opposition’s energy, and we did that. Our ball movement and shape asked them all sorts of problems.