Castleford Tigers 8, Bradford Bulls 32: What an asset scrum half Paul Deacon is to Bradford Bulls.

The 23-year-old Great Britain international landed eight goals from eight attempts for the second successive match last night and in the process the precision-kicker passed a century of points for the season.

Deacon has now landed his last 18 place kicks at goal, but more importantly the win put the Bulls four points clear at the top of Super League.

The 5ft 9in half-back certainly had plenty to think about when he had his first shot at goal against the Tigers.

With fireworks still going off in the background and a pall of smoke blowing across the ground, Deacon landed a first-minute penalty after Tigers hooker Wayne Bartrim was penalised.

Referee Robert Connolly was certainly keen to police the offside line, and Deacon made it 4-0 in the sixth minute when the Tigers were again punished.

Bartrim missed a similar chance in the tenth minute, but made amends in the 17th minute when the Bulls were again offside. A heavy downpour before the kick-off had subsided before the start, but it did leave its mark in terms of the slippery surface and knock-ons that occurred.

The Bulls were playing their second match in five days, whereas Castleford had had a 12-day break, but you couldn't tell from the evidence of last night.

There was the curious sight of Bulls full back Leon Pryce being chased down by his cousin Waine in the 23rd minute after a ricochet had gone in the Tigers' favour.

But Leon won the race to make the ball dead, and the Tigers then chose to substitute veteran prop Dean Sampson after a high tackle had incensed Bulls prop Stuart Fielden in the 26th minute.

Deacon exacted the usual punishment to make it 6-0 and the Bulls then started to rack up the pressure as they sought their first try of the evening.

Hooker James Lowes and stand-off Robbie Paul both went close before Bartrim struck an upright with a penalty attempt in the 37th minute.

Castleford, winners of only one of their previous five matches, then conceded an untimely try right on the stroke of half-time. A superb inside pass from Vainikolo gave centre Lee Gilmour the chance to dive over when the Tigers were short of numbers on their right.

However, 'The Volcano' was so close to the touchline before he got rid of the ball that referee Connolly had to call for video evidence to check that he didn't go out of bounds.

Deacon's kick made it 12-2, but the Tigers would have been level at 6-6 had Bartrim kicked his goals, but he managed just one success from his three attempts.

However, early in the second half Castleford stand-off Danny Orr was jumping for joy after a superbly-crafted score.

He took a pass from substitute Andy Lynch on halfway to pierce the Bulls defence and he judged his kick to perfection for left winger Darren Rogers to finish clinically at the corner.

Bartrim's touchline conversion narrowed the gap to just four points, but the Tigers' good work was undone within five minutes when Castleford winger Waine Pryce spoiled an otherwise splendid performance by failing to clear Deacon's kick over the try line, leaving half-time substitution Nathan McAvoy with the simplest of tries.

Waine Pryce flailed at the ball and missed, and must have wished he had opted to dive on the pill instead.

Deacon maintained his 100 per cent accuracy with the difficult conversion to take his points tally for the season to 99.

Castleford needed a try and quick, and they almost got one in the 52nd minute.

Centre Michael Eagar put the ball over the Bulls line, but - thanks to the attention of Tevita Vaikona - he dropped it and the try was rightly ruled out by the video referee.

This was the only incentive the Bulls needed to start turning up the heat, and Mike Forshaw, Paul and Lowes were all prominent.

Deacon's pass almost put substitute Paul Anderson over in the 64th-minute, but the giant forward had been tackled off the ball and Deacon's penalty brought up his century and put his side into a 20-8 lead.

Both Deacon and, more remarkably, second row substitute Lee Radford pinged drop goal attempts wide, and centre Andy Johnson then missed what proved the Tigers' last chance when he knocked on.

Amid a rash of substitutions, Paul darted over on a superb solo diagonal run in the 76th minute.

Deacon converted, but then came the highlight of the match two minutes later.

Vainikolo looked to be struggling when he had to turn and chase down a kick.

Remarkably he chose to slither along the turf for some distance, but he not only gathered the ball as two Tigers chasers overshot the mark, he then charged down the left wing and put McAvoy in for a try.

Vainikolo's team-mates surrounded him afterwards in congratulation, and inevitably Deacon added the goal to give a harsh ring to the scoreline from Castleford's point of view.