Francis Cummins insisted there was “still a good feeling” at the club despite seeing the Bulls thumped 36-6 at home by Wigan.

The Bradford coach had admitted beforehand that yesterday’s visit of the Super League leaders was an acid test for his side.

But Liam Farrell’s hat-trick, coupled with tries from Blake Green and Jack Hughes, left the Bulls 30-0 down at the break.

Cummins accepted his team were a distinct second-best but took heart from their improvement after the break.

“Unfortunately we couldn’t get the performance but there is still a good feeling around the place,” he said.

“All credit to Wigan – they got some repeat sets and we came up with some yardage errors. When you give all that field position to Wigan, they are very ruthless.

“It was going to be tough from there and we had a handful of people out there who were quite flat, although I don’t think it was a problem getting up for the game.

“I’ve said this before but we probably showed a bit of naivety in our play in that Wigan are probably four years down the line from where we are.

“They are quite ruthless in what they do. You could say it’s mechanical but it’s very effective and their discipline is very good.”

The Bulls refused to throw in the towel and Jarrod Sammut touched down after Sam Tomkins scored for Wigan, with the second half ending six points apiece.

Cummins said: “I’m happy with the character we showed in the second half but if you’re going to give the top teams ten sets more than you then it’s going to be difficult.

“We’re hanging on the ropes at times and we’re trying to knock the opposition out. We need to steady ourselves because we’re not that team yet. Unfortunately it just ran away in the first half.”

Referee Tim Roby infuriated the home fans and sin-binned Elliott Whitehead with five minutes remaining.

The penalty count was heavily against the Bulls but Cummins said: “I’m not going to start pointing fingers at referees because we have a fair bit to fix up ourselves.

“I’m not too disheartened because Wigan will do this to other teams and we’ve just got to start again.”

Cummins reported no major injury concerns and took heart from the 9,899 crowd.

He said: “We want to see Odsal like this more often and we want to get a few more in as well.”