York City Knights 66 York Acorn 0: Wilkinson leads Knights to Cup victory in '˜Battle of York'

Full-back Richard Wilkinson scored a try and five goals as York City Knights proved far too strong for amateur neighbours York Acorn in the Challenge Cup third round.

Knights cruised through 66-0 in front of a crowd of 2,293 at Bootham Crescent, more than five times the League One club’s 2015 average.

Acorn, of the National Conference Premier Division, created the first chance when long-striding winger Josh Thompson broke clear, but his pass inside was dropped by Joe Budd with the line open.

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The amateurs only had two opportunities after that, both deep into the second half. Anthony Chilton was off-target with a drop goal attempt when the score was 46-0 and late on Tom Hill made a break and kicked to the corner for centre Ryan Gallagher, but the defence got back to snuff out the danger.

After withstanding an early barrage, Knights were too fast and powerful. Half-backs Jonny Presley and Danny Nicklas - who kicked two goals from seven attempts - controlled the game and there were big contributions from second-rows Ryan Mallinder and Ed Smith.

It was 28-0 at the interval after a brace of tries each by Ed Morland and Mallinder and touchdowns for Presley and Smith.

In the second half Harry Carter, Wilkinson, Tyler Craig, Connor Bower, Nicklas, Brett Turner and Kriss Brining crossed to complete a 66-0 whitewash.

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hompson and Nicklas were sin-binned following a second half melee.

Knights coach James Ford felt his team did a professional job. He said: “Acorn made the first break of the game and that was a bit of a wake-up call for us.

“We tightened up our defence after that and we showed the character and desire in our team to keep working hard, even when the game was won.

“To keep them to zero was really pleasing.”

Acorn coach Scott Rhodes admitted: “I’m not too happy really about the performance or the scoreline.

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“For the first 10 minutes we did okay, but after that it was one-sided. We could not live with their strength or the pace of the game.”

Elsewhere, Hunslet Hawks beat Barrow 46-12, Keighley Cougars saw off Coventry 54-28 and Doncaster thrashed West Hull 54-0.