MICK Cook insisted there was much improvement in his York City Knights team after watching them beat London Skolars 40-18 at Huntington Stadium.

The result gets the Knights up and running in Co-op National League Two following Friday's disappointment away to Gateshead and, although it wasn't a wholly convincing performance against probably one of the weaker teams in the competition, Cook said the squad were putting in the effort to rediscover top form.

"We know we've still got a lot of work to go, but a reasonably convincing win yesterday has got us back on the ladder," he said.

"We haven't been playing as well as we can but it's a case of getting it back. Two or three weeks ago we took Toulouse to the cleaners and everybody was saying what a good team we are. You don't become a bad side overnight.

"We know there is a lot of things we need to do and we have to keep improving, but this was a positive end to the Easter weekend.

"We know we're not firing on all cylinders. Injuries are shuffling the team a bit, but we will get there. We're working hard in training and we showed glimpses of form yesterday."

The win leaves the Knights with four points after two games, two points off the leaders. Elsewhere, Gateshead were crushed 68-0 at Workington - adding new context to Friday's result - while the three early title favourites all won, Celtic Crusaders hammering Blackpool 68-0, Barrow pipping Swinton 35-30 and Featherstone beating Keighley 36-22.

Cook added: "The Easter weekend is tough for all teams and there was a bit of fatigue in both sides at the back end of the game.

"We've responded in a positive way."

Cook had been boosted by the returns to fitness of Rob Spicer, Dan Potter and Press man of the match Ryan Esders, while Ian Brown was able to play despite a minor hamstring problem. Captain Potter went off late in the game but it was only due to fatigue after illness.

"A few players stood up," added Cook. "Ryan Esders came in fresh, Rob Spicer's back in there and he's always a massive influence, and Adam Sullivan put two great stints in."

The Knights boss also had a word of praise for debutant Mark Spurr, who came on for a 20-minute stint at hooker.

"It was his first game at this level and he was pretty solid," he said. "It looked like he was blowing a bit but he's very good technically in defence and he showed a good turn of pace from dummy-half.

"It's a shame he sustained that broken jaw (in pre-season) as he would have been challenging for a place earlier."

The Knights had to wait to open the scoring yesterday, with Spicer having a try controversially ruled out, but Cook said he was confident it would come good.

"We were handling them reasonably easily in the first half and we played a lot of the game in their half, doing some decent little things," he said. "I thought it was just a matter of time before we got some scores and that proved the case."

He added: "The penalty count became quite heavy against us and I'm not too happy about it. We have to tidy up our discipline. We spent a lot of time defending in our own half because of it, which isn't ideal, but we've finished the game strong-ish and got the result."

Cook also paid the Skolars credit. "They've improved as a team," he said. "It's a good win for us."