Bradford Bulls 36, Wakefield 18: The lowest crowd for a Super League match since the Bulls moved to Valley Parade watched a patchy performance by the Grand Final winners.

The previous lowest attendance was 9,216 against London Broncos last month, but at least that beat the 7,760 who witnessed the 54-10 Challenge Cup defeat of Widnes Vikings on February 11 last year.

For much of last night's game it was impossible to tell who was top of the Tetley's Super League and who was bottom as the Bulls seemed rudderless.

Already missing Jamie Peacock, Stuart Fielden and Lee Gilmour - all with Great Britain in Australia - and the injured Paul Anderson, Brandon Costin and Paul Deacon, the Bulls then lost hooker James Lowes in the 28th minute.

He got a bang on his left knee - the one he had an operation on last month.

And, although the 'bombs' delivered by stand-off Leon Pryce were fine, the grubber kicks from various Bulls players left a lot to be desired.

For example, when scrum half Robbie Paul's effort went dead in the 63rd minute with the Bulls only 20-18 ahead, there was a chorus of boos from the home fans.

And in the 50th minute when a pass from full back Michael Withers had gone into touch behind left winger Lesley Vainikolo, it seemed to sum up how the Bulls' evening was going.

Bradford twice being pulled up for forward passes early on helped give the Wildcats the confidence to play with a zest that had been so obviously missing in their 42-18 defeat at fellow relegation candidates Salford just five days earlier.

Wakefield coach Peter Roe's response to that shallow display had been to cancel their Monday off and haul them in at 6.30am for rehabilitation, physiotherapy and to watch the video nasty of the day before.

But if he gets a reaction like last night's every time they flop, he might make it a regular occurrence.

Trinity certainly gave the depleted Bulls a serious fright, and Roe could not complain about his side's efforts after a stirring show which almost caused the upset of the season.

Only in the last ten minutes did Bradford finally take control to pull away from St Helens at the top of the table.

A penalty by Withers - place-kicking in the absence of Deacon - had given the Bulls the lead after 13 minutes before the game came to life with a spectacular try by New Zealand winger Vainikolo.

Escaping from a clutch of defenders on halfway, he raced down the touchline before rounding full back Martyn Holland to score. A Withers try and two conversions put the Bulls 14-0 ahead after 27 minutes, but maybe it was no coincidence that the Wildcats crossed twice in five minutes not long after Lowes had limped off in obvious pain.

At 14-12 at the interval, the destination of the points was very much in the balance, but the Bulls gained some breathing space when second-rower Daniel Gartner scored within six minutes of the restart, and Withers added his fourth goal.

The Wildcats, however, continued to provide stubborn opposition with substitute prop Chris Feather and hooker David March repeatedly causing problems and, despite losing second-rower Gareth Ellis injured, they struck back to again narrow the gap to two points.

The Bulls finally grabbed the initiative when their outstanding forward Mike Forshaw scored after 72 minutes, but two tries in the last couple of minutes by centres Scott Naylor and Nathan McAvoy served only to flatter the Bulls.

"At 20-18 we looked all on to maybe even go on and win if we got down the other end of the field," admitted Wildcats' coach Peter Roe.

"We didn't have too much of a problem scoring when we got down the other end of the field.

"It was a question of a good set of six and get there, but Paul Broadbent dropped the ball on tackle three and Bradford came back and scored.

"And the cruelness of rugby league was hammered home then with those late tries, although I thought a pass was a mile forward for their last try.

"The game was lost by then, so it was so near, but so far."

Roe added: "It was just a shame that we had to have such an awful performance last week to rev the lads up.

"But the Bulls had the power to come back at any stage with people like Robbie Paul and Leon Pryce in the side."