Bulls 36, Workington 6

MARC Green addressed Bulls supporters at half-time and spoke of the club being on a journey. He thanked them for their backing during his first year in charge and implored them to 'bring a friend' to Odsal with them.

The Bradford chairman wants bigger crowds and attendances should rise in accordance with results. What will be guaranteed to bring supporters back is a return to Super League.

The journey that Green spoke of the club being on will hopefully culminate in a top-flight return later this year. But if they do achieve that feat, this victory will not be among the highlight reels.

Rarely has Odsal felt so flat. The cold weather and drizzle did not help, but the Bulls at least walked away with the two points.

They had hammered Workington on the same ground a week earlier in the Challenge Cup fourth round, running in 13 tries.

Coach Jimmy Lowes had called for improvement following that 74-6 success but his players had to make to do with just the seven tries yesterday.

The conditions not only dampened the atmosphere but made for a poor spectacle too. Three early tries put the Bulls in control but they never really managed to kick on from there.

The first score stemmed from a mistake by Lewis Tierney, son of the legendary Jason Robinson, who collected the ball inside his in-goal area.

As at least two Bradford players tackled him, he spilt the ball and Jay Pitts was on hand to pounce for one of the easiest tries of his career. It was a gift for the Bulls and Ryan Shaw's conversion made it 6-0.

Samir Tahraoui, eager to make his mark on his first start for the club, made some big carries early on in a forward-dominated battle.

The Algeria-born prop was handed his opportunity with Adam Sidlow not risked after picking up a knock in the previous week's cup victory.

One such charge led to the Bulls scoring their second try as Tahraoui made decent metres midway through Workington's half. The hosts swiftly moved the ball out to the right corner and Jake Mullaney was on hand to finish the handling sequence off.

The Australian departed moments later, however, after taking a knock and was replaced by Jean-Philippe Baile, who slotted into the centres with Shaw moving to full back.

Workington were game opponents once again but they struggled to build any decent field position and lacked the quality to penetrate the home defence.

They looked vulnerable when Bradford attacked and a third home score arrived when Lee Gaskell chipped the ball to the left corner. Danny Williams was on hand to dive forward and stretch out an arm to ground the ball ahead of Brett Carter for his fourth try of the season.

Williams is enjoying a fine run of scoring form and this was the fourth match in succession he had touched down.

Tahraoui was replaced by Dan Fleming in the 22nd minute and moments later Gaskell took a pass from Shaw on the Bulls' 30-metre line and showed impressive pace to break Workington's line.

Town scrum half Carl Forber did well to track back and halt the former St Helens man's progress with a fine tackle midway through the visitors' half.

Paul Clough was then held up over the line by a pack of Workington defenders – but in truth, there was precious little fluency or rhythm to the Bulls' attacks.

The conditions played a part and accounted for a number of handling errors, while Workington defended doggedly too.

After the Bulls were penalised for holding down, the visitors had a good spell of pressure which ended with Forber's grubber kick running dead.

The start of the second half was decidedly flat, with a poor kick from Gaskell giving Workington possession which led to Tierney making a fine break from full back.

The Wigan youngster had men in support to his left but went the other way and the Bulls recovered to halt the visitors' attack. Workington were now up for this and began to pin the hosts inside their 20-metre line.

Bulls v Workington match pictures

The home faithful groaned in disapproval when an awful mix-up saw a kick blocked midway through their own half. Moments later, Workington went close in the left corner but were denied at the expense of a drop-out.

Workington largely dominated field position for a good ten minutes after the restart but they could not make it pay. Then twice in as many minutes, Bradford finally finished them off with a couple of well-worked tries.

After another strong run from Tahraoui, following a penalty against Workington, the Bulls advanced deep into the visitors' territory and Dale Ferguson's astute pass found Henry advancing at pace to score from ten metres out.

Then it was time for Gaskell to take centre stage, selling Tierney a dummy from 40 metres out before backing himself to score. That lifted home spirits, put the Bulls 24-0 ahead and the game beyond Workington.

Yet Phil Veivers' men refused to lie down and they got the try their efforts deserved in the 59th minute when Henry fumbled Callum Phillips' kick and Perry Whiteley was on hand to touch down.

But the New Zealander atoned for his error eight minutes later when he pounced to touch down another delightful grubber kick from Gaskell.

Williams then touched down in the left corner late on for his fifth try in four games to cap a fifth straight league win for the Bulls since their opening-day defeat to Leigh.

The Centurions destroyed Whitehaven 60-0 yesterday, setting a new club record of 17 consecutive wins.

Bradford remain two points behind Paul Rowley's side and now face two matches in four days over Easter against Halifax and Dewsbury, where a number of fringe players could be handed an opportunity to shine.

Attendance: 4,238