LEIGH Beattie admits he was pleased with his Bulls Academy side’s second-half response as they battled back from a slow start – insisting the players will learn lessons from the 36-10 loss.

A slow start saw the Academy side go into the half-time break trailing 14-4 against a strong St Helens outfit.

Beattie’s men had four tries disallowed throughout the contest and only had Oliver Wilson and debutant Danny McGrath tries to show for their effort.

Beattie said: “We did not set off well and we gave ourselves too much to do – we did not control things like we discussed but we addressed that at half-time.

“I am pleased with how we responded and we improved as the game went on – especially in that last 25 minutes.

“They are very good side, they are tough to play against so I am pleased with what we did and how we battled.

“If we had been a bit smarter with the ball especially in the first half it could have been a different ball game at half-time.

“We missed chances but the boys have got to learn along the way and this is what it is about, developing players and moving forward.

“Now we will work on what we did well and fix what we did not do so well and see how we go against Newcastle Thunder next week.