Bradford Bulls 22, Wigan Warriors 35 - There are some things you never thought you'd hear at a rugby match.

And a visiting coach stating: "Thank goodness they moved back to Odsal" definitely falls into that category.

Of course Stuart Raper, as Australians so often do, was only joking, but his sentiment was very worrying indeed for anyone involved with the Bulls.

The Homecoming season, now into its eighth game, was meant to be a restoration of Fortress Odsal.

But the Warriors came and kicked down that Fortress, inflicting the Bulls' second consecutive loss at home - the first time that has happened in any Super League season.

"We couldn't win at Valley Parade, thank goodness they moved back to Odsal," was Raper's view, and you could tell the satisfied coach meant it.

Wigan, without ever playing particularly well, had come, seen and conquered at this historic ground and he was delighted.

Brian Noble, as he has demonstrated after his side's two previous defeats this season, looked relaxed as he fulfilled his post-match press conference duties after the four-try apiece match settled by the boots of Andy Farrell and Adrian Lam.

He admitted there were too many mistakes and the side left themselves too much to do in the second-half.

He made barbed comments about the referee, explained that his side had picked up some fresh injuries and then left.

Noble is not one for ranting and raving in public, but you can guarantee there will be some harsh words spoken about his side's error-strewn performance.

Wins at Hull and Warrington were achieved without playing brilliantly, but the Farrell-enhanced Warriors aren't a side to play if you are not on your game.

And the Bulls suffered from an uncanny ability to make mistakes at exactly the wrong time.

Nearly every piece of positive play was spoiled by an immediate error, which meant the momentum was all with the visitors.

The Bulls' luck was clearly out as unfortunate timing and poor bounces did nothing to help their cause. In the first minute, Leon Pryce and the magnificent Jamie Peacock picked up David Hodgson and pushed him back eight yards for a drop-out.

Two minutes later Farrell's drop-out was allowed to bounce out of the field of play by Shontayne Hape, and one offside later the Warriors went two points up.

A very fortuitous trip to the video booth gave the visitors their next score after Lam and Shaun Briscoe had both chipped through.

In a foot-race to the line, Lesley Vainikolo looked to have touched it dead but Geoff Berry ruled that Nick Graham's forearm touching down the ball counted as a score.

Jimmy Lowes made his feelings known (more about that later) and the Bulls were 8-0 down.

This was to become 14 after a Lam 40-20 was followed by Farrell stepping inside Joe Vagana for his 100th try for Wigan.

The Great Britain skipper missed both his side's losses to Bradford this season, including the Challenge Cup semi-final, and appeared determined to ensure there would be no repeat.

Errors by Pryce, Mike Forshaw and Peacock early in the tackle count were not helping the Bradford cause, nor was Lam's grit-in-the-eye habit of dropping goals at will, as he did to make it 15-0 after 22 minutes.

Danny Sculthorpe was then sin-binned for a leg lift on Rob Parker, and Paul Deacon broke to send over Robbie Paul for the Bulls' first score.

But, still with 12 men on the field, Wigan responded when a Farrell kick through was tipped by Lowes' foot and bounced wickedly past Paul for Danny Tickle to dive on it.

Deacon's kick-off inexcusably didn't make the ten metres and, although Farrell's penalty didn't make it, Paul knocked on immediately to hand possession back to Wigan (can you see the pattern yet?), Karl Pratt stole the ball in a two-man tackle and Farrell put over another kick.

Lam added a drop goal just before the hooter to see the Bulls retreat to the safety of their dressing room at 24-6 down.

After the break there was an immediate reponse with Forshaw and Lowes combining for Deacon to sneak in under the posts.

But then a forward pass from the scrum half began the second-half errors, which were added to by the mouth of Lowes.

He was first penalised, albeit harshly, for a high tackle on Craig Smith but his resultant volley of abuse at the official earned Wigan another ten metres and Farrell could hardly miss.

The score was brought back to 26-16 after some over-deliberation by the video man ruled Joe Vagana, pictured fending off Warriors, had indeed touched down after a Lowes pass and Bradford's tails were up.

Berry then ruled out a Paul try after a Lowes classic pop-up pass had sent the skipper close to, but not quite over, the line.

There was a whiff of a comeback for the next few minutes, although this wasn't helped when Lowes' dissent turned a scrum for a knock-on into another two points for Farrell.

But a horrible error, this time by Briscoe, allowed Gartner to waltz over after neat kicks by Lowes and Vaikona and suddenly there was just six points on it.

At last the momentum seemed to have shifted in favour of the Bulls and the anticipation of one of Super League's finest comebacks was in the air.

Then Wigan kicked-off, Paul messed it up and it was effectively game over.

With a heady mixture of tremendous bad luck and ill-timing, the skipper tried to stop the ball with his legs, succeeding only in allowing it to skid off his knee 15 metres forward into the grateful arms of Martin Aspinwall.

Lam bagged his drop goal hat-trick, the deficit was seven points and the game was effectively over.

The Bulls persevered for the remaining six minutes before Graham sneaked in around the back for his second and the game's final try.

St Helens, despite their lowly position, will now quite fancy their next trip to the 'Fortress'.