Warrington 28, Bradford Bulls 10

Match Comment, by Nigel Askham.

If ever a game turned on one decision this was it.

For 25 minutes the Bulls were well in control. Aided by a try in their first attack they looked solid in defence and capable of adding to their lead at any time.

Enter Graeme Bradley leading with his forearm to flatten diminutive Warrington teenager John Duffy as the Aussie took the ball up and referee Russell Smith did the rest.

At best it was reckless of the skipper and within seven minutes the Bulls had paid a heavy price as the Wolves spotted their chance and took full advantage of the extra man to notch two tries.

There were brief signs of resistance as Matt Calland brought the deficit back to 12-10 but two Wolves tries in a three minute spell either side of the break proved how hard it is these days for a side to cope when they are a man down.

After that it was mainly a damage limitation exercise and there was no shortage of endeavour throughout the side but it was still their biggest away league defeat since the 55-10 hiding at St Helens in August 1995 - when coach Matthew Elliott launched his career with the club.

The major worry for him on this occasion was their failure to gain any sort of cohesion on attack once Bradley had departed.

It served also to highlight the lack of hooker Jimmy Lowes who was forced to pull out with knee trouble which flared up after training on Saturday.

His organisation from dummy-half was badly missed and such was the confusion you had to keep counting to make sure they were only one man short.

Half-back Robbie Paul and Shaun Edwards just couldn't get into their stride and the forwards were so overworked in defence they understandably had little left in the locker when it came to going forward.

Mike Forshaw, Bernard Dywer and Brian McDermott all worked their socks off but most sympathy at picking up losing pay went to immaculate full-back Stuart Spruce.

The Great Britain ace is producing the goods consistently and his appetite for the ball was something to behold.

Even after the final hooter had sounded he still made a desperate attempt to chase his own kick downfield to round off a superb effort.

He almost gave the Bulls a second-half lifeline too as they attempted to claw back a 22-10 deficit but the video referee rightly ruled a double movement in Steve McCurrie's tackle.

A try at that stage might have made life interesting as the Wolves lost their way but Michael Eager's try just past the hour mark confirmed it wasn't going to be the Bulls night.

Things had begun so promisingly with Danny Farrar's knock on at the opening play-the-ball giving them the platform for Tevita Vaikona to cross in simple fashion following a clinical move inspired by Edwards and Spruce.

Wolves didn't look capable of troubling them at that stage but with Bradley gone Farrar, who also conceded a penalty from which McNamara made it 6-0, turned hero.

First he sent 17 stone second-rower McCurrie charging through and then he somehow squeezed out a pass which veteran winger Mark Forster gathered to go over wide out.

Then with the Bulls looking to the break to re-organise the Aussie hooker's perfectly weighted kick caught out Vaikona and Forster grabbed a vital yard to take the helpful bounce and recent Bulls target Jon Roper's touchline goal gave the home side a vital edge.

The visitors needed a solid start after the break but the out of sorts Jeremy Donougher coughed up possession and moments later Mike Wainwright dummied his way over to add to the Bulls' woes and there was no real way back after that.

Elliott's men have now lost three games - one more than they did on the way to the title last season and they are certainly finding the going much tougher with injuries to key players just adding to the problems.

But the key lesson was that the competition across Super League is now too intense to play a man down for 55 minutes and expect to get away with it.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.