Bradford Bulls see off York despite uncomfortable finish

IT WAS emergency services day at Odsal and the Bulls had to survive some late alarms to get back to winning ways.

They were cruising at 30-10 with 14 minutes to go but a remarkable rally from York in the closing stages made for a breathless finish yesterday.

But the Bulls saw it through to avenge that early-season defeat and bag the two points needed after their draining battles with the top two.

Liam Tindall and Harvey Makin came straight into the 17 after the latest dip into the loan market to deal with the injury problems.

Franklin Pele offered a powerful presence again after his suspension. He replaced the banned Ebon Scurr.

There was a minute’s silence before kick-off after the passing of Sam Hallas’ dad Steve during the week. Hallas, to his immense credit, held up his hand to still play.

Last week’s slugfest with leaders Wakefield saw the Bulls held to their first try-less outing since June 2021.

But Eamon O’Carroll insisted the players were in a “great frame of mind” to face an opponent that had become quite a rival over recent years.

Tindall was straight into the fray as he burst onto Jordan Lilley’s grubber kick from the opening set. It took a frantic takedown from Joe Brown to prevent the score.

But the opening score arrived on five minutes with some enterprising play from Max Lehmann, the winger chasing his own dab through a hesitant defence to score in the corner.

York’s lack of a genuine full back was evident as Nikau Williams, deputising in the role, made a total hash of Lilley’s high kick.

But the contest was turned completely on its head by two costly Bulls handling errors.

Tom Holmes was guilty of the first after initially doing well to side-step the York chase from a high kick. But he took it too far and was eventually outnumbered as former Keighley Cougar Brenden Santi grabbed the loose ball.

York made the most of their first sight of the line as Jimmy Keinhorst sent Brad Ward over out wide.

The Bulls then pressed self-destruct again as Tindall coughed up another ball deep in his own half. Connor Bailey cashed in this time as he motored over by the posts.

The response to that double blow was good – aided by several York penalties as the mistakes continued. Tyron Ott bobbled a kick into the in-goal where Jayden Myers was there to touch down.

Williams then blasted the kick-off straight out to hand the Bulls the initiative.

A wild pass from Mitch Souter threatened to halt the momentum before they made it count with Kieran Gill bagging his 12th try of the campaign from Lilley’s low kick.

Jordan Myers was “clotheslined” by Williams as he headed for the line – and the full back was dismissed for 10 minutes.

Bulls punished the 12 men as Gill burrowed through a gap from dummy half for his second score.

John Davies dives over for the fifth try after Keven Appo blasted through (Image: Tom Pearson)

It had been a half dominated by the hosts – but those two handling errors meant York still maintained an interest in the contest with an eight-point deficit.

Bulls forced an early goal-line drop-out after the turnaround and Keven Appo blasted through a wilting defence to set up John Davies on his shoulder for the fifth try.

Davies was then involved in the goalline hustle that held up Bailey inches short on the last tackle.

Souter had been an instrumental figure for the Bulls all afternoon. He eased the pressure with a raking kick early in the tackle count to turn York around – and then set up a second drop-out with his boot.

Souter had a hand in the sixth try just after the hour with a quick pass for Eribe Doro to gleefully crash over.

The game looked done but Cook, at least, had other ideas.

Ronan Michael ran over Ott to send the Aussie through for York’s third try – and a fourth soon followed as the scrum half did just enough to snake an arm over under a Bulls pile.

The 20-point cushion had been slashed to eight with 10 minutes still to go.

And that was reduced to just two as the rejuvenated Knights made it three converted tries in the space of nine minutes, Keinhorst finishing off a break from Williams and Potter nailing the touchline kick.

Odsal had become very, very twitchy.

The Bulls needed to stop the rot – and did it thanks to a magnificent pressure-easing sprint upfield from Lilley, turning defence into attack.

He was eventually hauled down at the 10m line but the relief around the stadium was obvious.

And it set up the platform for Zac Fulton to put the game to bed with a seventh try a couple of minutes from the hooter.