JIMMY Lowes admitted the Bulls "got out of jail" as they survived some nervy moments to beat bottom side Doncaster 56-38.

The result gave Bradford a ninth straight Championship win but Lowes acknowledged they were poor defensively after shipping seven tries.

Lee Gaskell scored a hat-trick and Dale Ferguson and Etu Uaisele added two tries apiece, while new recruit Steve Crossley came off the bench to make his second debut for the club.

But head coach Lowes Lowes said: "I thought we were poor and we looked tired as well. That was probably as a result of me pushing them really hard at training this week – maybe a little bit too hard.

"I just thought we were off our game in every aspect but I thought Doncaster showed some real spark at times – they looked like a decent side and belied their position in the table.

"The positives are that we won and we got out of jail a little bit but generally we were poor. We coughed up the ball and gave away some silly penalties, plus we pride ourselves on our defence.

"That was pretty poor and just generally across the board we were down, which had a major effect on our skill levels."

Crossley was introduced during the first half but later tweaked his hamstring slightly and was withdrawn.

Lowes said: "I thought Steve did okay. He got a pass from Adam O'Brien in the first half around his ankles and I think that just tweaked his hamstring a little bit.

"But he should be all right and he did a decent job, as did Dan Fleming."

Jean-Philippe Baile took a bang to his quad and Chev Walker also departed with a knee problem.

Lowes, whose side face Sheffield at Odsal next Sunday, explained: "Hopefully it's just a dead leg for Jean-Philippe. Chev came off with a bit of a niggle to his knee, which meant we had to play with two back-rowers in the centres."

Meanwhile, Adam Brook, Nathan Conroy and Dave Petersen were all on the scoresheet for Oxford as they beat Hemel Stags 31-28 yesterday.

Matty Blythe also played for the League One outfit on dual-registration as he looks to work his way back to full match fitness after several months on the sidelines.