Bradford Bulls hero Paul Deacon will be walking tall in Wigan this week after shooting down his hometown club in memorable fashion at Odsal on Saturday.

The 20-year-old scrum-half gave an immaculate display to take the man of the match award despite being forced to retire before the hour mark with ankle trouble.

But his mature display which included four goals and a drop had already put the Bulls well on the way to a 19-2 win over the reigning Super League champions to extend their unbeaten to seven games and put the pressure back on leaders St Helens.

"I live five minutes from Central Park so it will be good to go back to Wigan with a smile on my face," smiled Deacon who has been forced to bide his time on the bench due to the presence of Kiwi Test starts Robbie and Henry Paul in the Bulls squad.

But coach Matthew Elliott sprung a late surprise by bringing in the youngster at scrum-half and moving Henry to loose forward.

"He deserved to start the game," explained Elliott. "He came on at Gateshead last week and came up with the big plays.

"He is the easiest player I have ever had to coach and he will continue to improve. To come on after several weeks on the bench and take charge of senior players like he did takes a very mature and very intelligent individual.

"The drop goal was not called it was just him being smart. He just has a knack of focusing everyone in the direction we need to go.

"We had to sacrifice some ball movement because of the windy and wet conditions."

Meanwhile Elliott will work this week to fill the quota spot made vacant by the retirement of Danny Peacock who was given a heroes reception at the end of the game.

"There may be some news by the end of the week when everything is confirmed," said Elliott. "He is an outside back and although he is not a high profile player has enough first grade experience in Australia to qualify as far as a work permit is concerned."

Wigan coach John Monie admitted that his decision to play skipper Andy Farrell backfired. Loose forward Farrell, who had been unable to train all week because of an ankle injury, extended his record scoring run to 59 matches with an early penalty goal but he struggled throughout the first half and was forced off at half-time.

He is now in danger of losing the record as the only ever-present since the inception of Super League in 1996.

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