NEW Bradford Bulls coach Eamon O’Carroll, although quietly pleased, admits that he is not getting carried away by his team’s 24-16 victory over Halifax Panthers in their Christmas Challenge match at a wet and windy Odsal on Christmas Eve.

His team showed amazing resilience in defence, keeping Halifax out for five successive sets, and a clinical edge in attack in far from ideal conditions, but he realises it is only step one in a long season.

O’Carroll admitted: “We got out of it what we wanted to get out of it, and credit to Halifax as well, but we are not getting carried away here. It is one game after five weeks (of training) and we will keep our feet firmly on the ground.

“We have got a lot of work to do - there is no doubt about that - but what I really like about that is that the players know that and they knew that when they walked into training.

“We get to go away and enjoy our Christmas and it will give us a good look at what we continue to do well and what we need to be better at going into January, where we have three games to work on.”

O’Carroll added: “Taking the result out of it, I was very pleased with the performance. We simplified what we wanted and the one thing that we asked for was effort, and the players gave us that in bucket loads.

“We looked like a team that wanted to play together. We had to defend successive sets on our goal-line but we looked well connected and wanted to work hard for each other.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Bulls had to produce some brilliant defending in order to restrict Halifax to just three tries.Bulls had to produce some brilliant defending in order to restrict Halifax to just three tries. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“We haven’t had too much time to put that together with only being back for five weeks so a lot of that comes down to effort and putting yourself in the right position, and Halifax did that as well.”

However, although the match was mostly about the Bulls defence, it was not exclusively as O’Carroll’s team scored three first-half tries by Chester Butler, Brad England and George Flanagan from limited chances.

O’Carroll said: “We didn’t get too many opportunities to attack, but when we did we chose the right plays and showed some patience, so I am really pleased with that as well.”

Other than Dan Smith (gashed leg), the Bulls came through the match with a clean bill of health, while Ebon Scurr is among the players who are set to come back in the Bulls’ next pre-season match at Featherstone Rovers on Sunday, January 7 (3pm).