Bradford Bulls 54, St Helens 22: Sky TV's big screen may have been smaller than usual at Valley Parade on Saturday night - but it was still big enough for Bradford Bulls' fans.

Every time the screen showed a close up of Saints coach Ian Millward, many among the crowd of 14,271 broke into a chorus of booing.

Millward, being booed for fielding a severely weakened team in a Tetley's Super League clash of first versus second, then spotted he was on camera and waved in response to the cat-calls. And he was genuinely surprised afterwards to hear that he had been pilloried by both Sky TV pundit Mike Stephenson for playing for 25 minutes with 12 men, and by both Stevo and Bulls chairman Chris Caisley for the strength of his 17.

Of the absent 12, he said that five were almost certain to play against Wigan next Saturday, although seven of them "would fail fitness tests".

Millward said: "Last Tuesday I had a press conference and I announced then that I had a lot of players injured and twice asked the Rugby Football League to come to the club as soon as possible to assess players. Wigan had seven out on Friday, Warrington had 13 out recently and Wakefield and poor old Peter Roe have had ten out.

"I rested six players before last year's Challenge Cup final, and no-one said anything. This year I have had injuries, and it is a problem.

"The reasons it has been hyped up so much is that I have been very honest, and secondly it is the Challenge Cup final next weekend.

"When I grew up in Australia the biggest thing was the Challenge Cup final.

"Unfortunately, in those days they didn't have a Super League Grand Final, which is just as important now.

"There are only two trophies available in this country, and we would like to win Super League and the Challenge Cup.

"We play Bradford another three times, but that wasn't why we didn't play people.

"We had people who were medically busted, and that was why I was happy for the league to come in.

"If I had played them against Bradford they might not be able to play next weekend, and that is a tough call.

"Someone from the League could have got in their car and hopped on our team bus and I would have rung all 12 players who were out and they would not have passed a fitness test.

"And in this match I had Paul Southern who cracked his ribs and he went back on, and the doctor tapped me on the shoulder and said 'Ian, if those ribs are cracked and he stays on any longer and they go into his lungs he is gone'. I had to get Paul out of there.

"Also Darren Albert has a slight hamstring strain, and Barry Ward went into the game with a slight injury, but I think he is the kind of player whereby this game wouldn't have hurt him. He is a person that gets better with games.

"John Stankevitch got carted off with a knee problem - he'll be touch and go for the final - and I had a bench where I couldn't replace anyone.

"What I can't fathom is that I have done that twice in games this season and won.

"What the press should be writing about is how my 17 guys - many of them young kids - put their bodies on the line against the World Club champions.

"I would have thought I would have put the game into disrepute if they had turned up and not tried.

"We were very positive at 22-12 down at half-time, and we set ourselves a goal of scoring a couple of tries in the second half, and we achieved that.

"I have done nothing here to belittle Super League. If I had played my 17 here and not played them next Saturday, that would be disrepute.

"And would Kellogg's renew their sponsorship the following season if I did that?"

As for the fans booing, Millward added: "They would boo me if I was wearing a Santa Claus outfit.

"I can't wait to be Lancashire coach so I can hear the Wigan fans cheering me - I don't worry about people booing me."

Bulls coach Brian Noble said: "It is pretty hard to motivate players when you have prepared for two weeks to play St Helens' best team, but if they've got injuries they've got injuries.

"I understand why we were a little bit sloppy towards the back end - we over-emphasised wanting to please - but I am highly delighted with the two points."

In reality, the Bulls were never going to lose this match, and they pointed that out as early as 32 seconds when Lesley Vainikolo went over for the first try.