Bulls 26 Salford 30

At the end of a week of radical off-field change at Odsal, it was a case of same old story on the pitch.

Steve McNamara’s departure has done little to address familiar problems that have plagued the Bulls for months. Clearly it will take more than just a willingness to change for an actual transformation to take place.

Similarly, the announcement of St Helens boss Mick Potter as coach for 2011 added a few more onto the gate but it will be a while before his influence is actually felt.

In a funny way, the game was almost representative of McNamara’s recent reign.

Throughout the on-field struggles, characterised by a flurry of errors, the main bright spot was the performance of debutant Vinny Finigan.

Rotated between wing and full back during the game, the 20-year-old showed great aptitude in both positions, scoring two tries and providing constant threat with his sharp, powerful running.

But the positives were too few and far between and caretaker boss Lee St Hilaire will know he has a significant task on his hands in steering this side towards the play-offs.

Initially, the events of the week appeared to have strengthened the Bulls’ resolve, as they tore into tackles right from the off.

But chinks in the armour were still there to be seen. Missed tackles allowed Salford to get at the hosts in a similar fashion to the manner Quins had the previous week, too easily making quick yards.

Bradford seemed particularly susceptible to the short, flat pass, defenders too often committing at the wrong time or jumping out of the line to provide gaps for opposition runners to blast through.

Yet the opening try came from a string of simple, straightforward, one-on-one errors.

When Jodie Broughton fielded Danny Addy’s grubber inside his own in-goal, he should have been quickly wrapped up by any one of the advancing tacklers.

Instead, the opportunity to force a drop-out turned into a defensive collapse, as Michael Platt failed to properly grab hold of the City Reds winger, Stuart Reardon fluffed the covering tackle on halfway and Craig Kopczak missed with a desperate lunge.

Broughton couldn’t believe his luck as he trotted home for a length-of-the-field try, which Daniel Holdsworth converted.

The curse of the poor start continued to plague Bradford and they soon fell two tries behind for the seventh time in eight games.

Karl Fitzpatrick’s excellent 40-20 kick laid the platform and Salford worked the ball wide, where Malcolm Alker sent in Ste Tyrer, Holdsworth adding the extras.

Fortunately, the Bulls hit back – they simply had to if the game was not going to slip away from them completely.

A good, solid set allowed progress on the back of a penalty and Addy judged his grubber kick to perfection, nudging it in behind for Steve Menzies to collect and touch down.

Confidence refreshed, the hosts genuinely seemed capable of getting a roll going, hits from Reardon and Menzies on Tyrer and Adam Neal respectively helping to gee up players and supporters alike.

Heath L’Estrange came agonisingly close to scoring his side’s second try of the game, losing control of the ball as he lunged for the line out of dummy half.

But that momentum came to nothing, especially when Ashley Gibson’s break allowed Salford to stun the Bulls once more.

Although Gibson was hunted down by the chasing Brett Kearney ten metres out, the tackle was judged incomplete and Holdsworth’s eventual crossfield kick found Stuart Littler completely unattended by the disjointed defence.

Holdsworth added the extras to open a 14-point gap.

Given a significant kick up the backside from a Salford size nine, Bradford responded to finish the half on a high.

Sustained pressure reaped rewards as Finigan threw himself at Kearney’s grubber to touch down with an outstreched arm, Addy converting.

And the young flyer very nearly scored in almost identical circumstances soon after the break, this time failing to gather as Kearney’s grubber bounced high above his head.

From that let-off, the City Reds responded with a try their lack of ball or territory certainly didn’t deserve, Jeremy Smith selling an outrageous dummy to break and send in the supporting Fitzpatrick. Holdsworth once more added the extras.

Too often, Salford were allowed to drift through the Bulls’ line with barely a hand laid on them, utterly ruining any territory or pressure previously built up, and when Jamie Langley missed a tackle on Broughton, he raced away from his own 30-metre line to score another dazzling try.

At that stage, it looked to be game over but it was far from it. The Bulls dug deep into their reserves which, in truth, should have been tapped much earlier in the game to set up a grandstand finish.

A neatly worked move saw the ball go through several pairs of hands before Reardon finished on the left, although Addy was unable to kick the conversion.

Two minutes later Bradford scored again, Andy Lynch’s off-load on halfway creating the space for Chris Nero to break powerfully down the left, handing off an attempted tackle before finding Elliott Whitehead on his shoulder for the try.

It became three tries in five minutes when Platt showed strength to stand up in the tackle and feed Finigan for his second of the day.

Addy converted both those efforts to shorten the deficit to four and set-up the seemingly impossible.

But despite finishing the game camped on the opposition goal-line, the Bulls couldn’t make that final play, Mike Worrincy dropping Kearney’s pass with possibly the best opportunity to clinch it.