Steve McNamara labelled his side “dumb” after a catalogue of errors saw them lose out at Wakefield.
Bradford had hoped to build on Good Friday’s win over Leeds Rhinos but shot themselves in the foot with a mistake-ridden performance.
Although they nearly nicked the game at the end, they still lost out 24-22 and McNamara admits they only had themselves to blame.
The Bulls completed just 50 per cent of their sets and were never able to build any momentum as they continued to cough up ball.
“The amount of errors we made was criminal,” blasted the boss.
“We consistently made them, particularly throughout the second half, and when it’s your second game in a short space of time, possession and position is key to play this second game. We totally lost in that department.”
Their own mistakes saw Wakefield score three first-half tries to go in 18-10 up and Bradford had to work overtime.
But the home side completed their scoring as early as the 53rd minute when Steve Snitch touched down to make it 24-10 and the Bulls still couldn’t turn it around as the needless mistakes continued.
Mick Worrincy did finally go over and Michael Platt’s effort brought it back to within two points with three minutes to go.
But McNamara said: “We weren’t very smart with the ball and we showed that at the back end.
“We were a kick away at the death from snatching the game but if we had showed enough patience early on we’d have given ourselves even more of an opportunity to go on and win the match.
“We were as dumb as I’ve seen us play for a long period of time and it’s cost us.
“With two or three minutes to go we gave ourselves a chance to snatch victory but we shouldn’t have had so little time left on the clock to do that. We shouldn’t have put ourselves in that situation.
“It’s no consolation it was so close. I’m disappointed it took us so long to get back in to the position where we could have won the game. We should have done it a whole lot earlier.”
Danny Brough kicked all four conversions for Wakefield and that ultimately proved the difference as Paul Sykes missed one of his shots.
The Bulls, who host Warrington on Friday, also lost young centre Jason Crookes to suspected medial knee ligament damage, while it is understood they could be set to make a move for French international hooker Julien Rinaldi.
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