Much better from the Bulls today. The pack worked hard and made much better metres this week despite some pretty tough conditions. I thought Luke Gale was outstanding and controlled the game for us with his superb kicking. Langley looked a lot more like his old self and put in a ton of work this week. Crookes and Kear looked performed well once again IMO. We made it hard for ourselves at times with some errors that we shouldn't be making. Not finding touch with penalties and forward passes straight from the PTB. But thankfully our defence was tremendous for once! Despite Cas have a ton of possession in our half, we scrambled back and soak up all their attack. I expected it would tell late in the 2nd half but we looked the fitter team by the end of the game. We cannot afford to give Wigan that amount of ball so easily next week though.



Big thumbs up to the guys today though, they tackled their hearts out for the full 80. If they can show that much determination and effort a little more often this year, I'll be a happy Bulls fan.

Just got back



Couple of things, I'd love to see the penalty count, we got battered by the ref and he didn't seem to be pulling both teams for the same things with some baffling decisions.



Much much better display, the first half score didn't tell the story and we were much the better team. Gale was great and really controlled what went on but I still don't see what Chev brings to the team and I think he needs to up his game as yet again he made too many errors. There seemed to be a desire to win and it really showed in the performance, great defence and apart from the odd slip up we looked secure.



If Cas lose Rangi their doomed as everything goes through him.



Coming way fom a game happy with the performance. . . .priceless

What was the final penalty count in the end?

Great backs against the wall team effort. Some of the last ditch defence was outstanding. If we play with that heart and desire every week we'll be alright. Despite losing Donaldson and Purtell to injury, L'Estrange to the sin bin and a very very lopsided penalty count we won. Great stuff.



Still plenty to work on but just what we needed before next Sunday. Thought the forwards had the beating of the Cas pack and our defence around the ruck was much better. We watched Chase well and Cas looked short of ideas, surprisingly so when we were a man down.

18 penalties given today. We got 6 of them.

Solid effort from everyone today. Referee was very one sided and a lot of handling errors for both teams but not surprising given the conditions.



Thought Gale, Sammut and Kearney were brilliant, ran the show. Heath looked and Scruton looked to be getting back to his old self.



Finally it was a welcome sight to see Whitehead back, switched from second row to centre well in the absence of Purtell.

12-6 to cas I believe. Was 10-3 early in 2nd half.



Anyone questioning commitment of players only had to see looks on their faces at end to know how much win meant to them. Showed real pride in shirt. Superb defensive effort today and scoreline doesn't really reflect how good attack was. At least 3 tries stopped inches short. Koppy and burgess both looked more aggressive and their games benefited. Whitehead was a man possessed at times and gale and Lear both put in some superb try saving tackles. Overall a big improvement on last week. Need to keep it going now.

I really hope Purtell, Lulia and Donaldson are all ok for next week so we can really give it a go agains the pies.

Great determination to grind out a win in poor conditions.



If I'm honest we never looked like losing it as we managed everything Castleford threw at us. Every time Cas took the ball up it was Chase making the play 5 minutes before the rest of the Cas team knew what was going on. Millward mentioned in his post-match interview that Cas hadn't practised much this week with the ball in hand and it really showed today.



Bradford's kick/chase was spot on and our goal line defence was superb. 110% commitment from 1-17 in red, amber and black today. If we are going to struggle this season these are the games we need to be winning if we want to achieve a top 8 finish.

Is there any news on the injuries?

Been told Donaldson is looking at 10 weeks out. Purtell should be ok fir next week. How accurate that is remains to be seen. Suspect given Lulia is coming back from a hamstring injury it may been a tactical decision not to risk him on a heavy pitch today. Heard a rumour manase may be ok for next week too.

I get the feeling that had this fixture been played at the height of summer, Castleford would have won this on the back of dominating territory and possession and coupled with our indiscipline.



The chances that Castleford squandered off the top of my head were:



Adam Milner's kick on the last 5m out from the Bradford try line that hit the post and went dead.



Milner then going close to scoring from Rangi Chase's kick which Jason Crookes surprisingly left.



Stuart Jones being stopped inches from the line by some athletic Bradford Bulls goal line defence.



Nathan Massey losing the ball on the tackle three inside the Bradford 10m after going 25m through the middle of our pack.



Josh Griffin agonisingly juggling the ball and then losing it over the line from another Rangi Chase kick.

Same goes for the Bulls, we'd have posted more points also. We went close numerous times too.

True.