York City Knights enjoyed a comfortable 34-10 win at Workington in their opening Northern Rail Cup fixture.

After conceding an early try, Tom Haberecht scored an interception try for the Knights and by half-time they led 22-6 with three further tries.

Assistant coach James Ratcliffe told BBC Radio York: "We've come up to Cumbria and carried on where we left off last season [when they won 56-18].

"There are plenty of things to work on, some positives, some negatives."

He added: "We've gone about it with, as someone's just suggested, a workmanlike performance.

"I'm happy with some aspects obviously... a number of the players have been harsh on themselves and realise there's still a lot of work to do."

Ratcliffe was disappointed with the start to both halves.

"For 10 minutes we allowed them to run the game, then we found our feet and we got a lucky break through Tom getting the breakaway try, and we never looked back in the first half and looked comfortable," he said.

It took 29 minutes before either side scored in the second half and the try came from Workington, although the Knights responded with two tries in three minutes to complete the scoring.

It shows a bad attitude to come out and only play 40 or 50 minutes of the game York assistant James Ratcliffe

"We asked the players to push on as a group," Ratcliffe added. "And they've all gone within themselves.

"I'm probably being harsh on 34-10, but if we want to do anything this season we've got to be harsh on each other.

"It shows a bad attitude to come out and only play 40 or 50 minutes of the game."

York City Knights play their next game on Wednesday, when they entertain Whitehaven in the match that was postponed from 8 February.

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