York City Knights opened their account in Championship One with a routine but unimpressive 36-8 win over London Skolars at the Huntington Stadium.

In each half the Skolars scored an early try and, after holding out for a long time, conceded three tries to the Knights, the last right on the hooter.

Knights assistant coach Mick Ramsden told BBC Radio York: "We've got to play as we would against the top teams.

"We were lacking enthusiasm today, that was the most disappointing thing."

Ramsden accepted that it was sometimes difficult for players to motivate themselves against weaker teams like the Skolars, but would not use that as an excuse.

"We did not start the game as we intended to start it, as we talked about," he said.

"Skolars are a decent side and they caused us some trouble."

The Skolars were still 4-0 up after half an hour, but the introduction of Brett Waller and Mark Applegarth inspired three tries in quick succession to break the Skolars' resistance.

"Those two bring us a lot of different things, Brett Waller in particular with his offloading game," said Ramsden.

But Ramsden admitted that the Knights' preparations for the game had been "disjointed" through no fault of their own.

"There were a couple of inches of water standing on this field on Friday night so we couldn't train, which was not the best preparation," he added.

"We've not really set it alight in the first few [cup] games of the season. We've got to work hard to get 80-minute performances.

"We've got to learn that if we're going to do well this year we've got to perform for the full 80 minutes."

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