Gateshead Thunder 12, Bradford Bulls 22; by Nigel Askham at The Thunderdome.

The Bulls might not look back on this performance with too much pleasure but they know not too many of their top five rivals will return from the Thunderdome with the points.

Trailing 12-8 going into the final quarter they were second favourites at that stage as Gateshead's enthusiasm threatened to overwhelm them.

With the Paul brothers struggling to give them a vital spark the Bulls were in desperate need of some inspiration from somewhere.

And as if to celebrate his call-up for the Great Britain training squad it was youngsters Paul Deacon who duly came up trumps with the decisive contribution.

There seemed little on when he received the ball but his direct approach caught the Thunder defence on the hop for once and fellow substitute Warren Jowitt timed his support perfectly to score his second try in as many weeks much to the relief of the majority of Thunder's record crowd.

A Henry Paul penalty edged them further ahead although if referee Bob Connolly had allowed the advantage it could well have brought Bulls a further try wide out.

They didn't have long to wait to put the seal on their victory as Jimmy Lowes sliced through from acting half-back and supplied Stuart Spruce whose pass gave Leon Pryce a 15 metre coast-in.

Deacon and Pryce's roles in the strong finale will have particularly pleased them after their defensive slip had helped Thunder take charge early in the second-half.

Full-back Steve Collins looked well covered when he raced on to Craig Simon's pass but somehow he found a way between the talented young duo to really raise home spirits for a while.

But the Bulls weathered the storm to finish on top and, while the final margin was more than a little flattering, it would really have been a travesty had Stuart Fielden not finished on the winning side.

You have to keep reminding yourself at times that he's only 19 such is his fearless and singled-minded app-roach.

Props are not widely thought to mature fully until their late 20's but Fielden is blowing that theory out of the water and showing he has little regard for opposition reputations.

His first touch - a 40 metre charge direct from the kick-off - set the tone for a superb individual effort and Thunder must have been sick of the sight of him, not to mention badly bruised, by the finish.

But despite his role in their early promise it needed a real touch of class from Henry Paul to get Bulls on the board.

Lowes worked a neat move in centre field to put the Kiwi in space and his combination of strength and superb balance did the rest .

But with a niggling injury taking its toll his match winning potential was rarely seen after that and coach Matthew Elliott was concerned enough about the lack of creativity to replace Steve McNamara with Deacon after 28 minutes.

It gave the side more impetus generally but didn't stop Thunder taking an 8-6 lead with centre David Maiden dummying his way over as the Bulls left flank defence lost its way.

It could have been even worse though as minutes earlier Spruce had pulled off a great cover tackle on Will Robinson after Henry Paul's kick ahead rebounded invitingly for the Thunder stand-off.

Instead the Bulls were level right on the break as Deacon thumped over a 40 metre shot with something to spare and, after the scrum-half limped off late on, Henry Paul showed the depth of goalkicking talent in the squad by landing two himself including one beauty to add the extras to Pryce's try.

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