Wakefield Trinity had looked on course for an invincible season in the Betfred Championship, but Saturday suggested another Grand Final shock could be on the cards.

London Broncos were shock winners of the play-offs last year, stunning the two clear favourites Featherstone and Toulouse in the semis and final respectively to reach Super League.

Automatic promotion and relegation have been scrapped now, but Bulls know they are still being graded on performance by IMG and are not far off Super League as it is.

A Grand Final win could get them over the line, into Super League, and with Toulouse thrashing hitherto-unbeaten Wakefield 32-4 in France at the weekend, Trinity showed they can be got at.

And it also further cemented just how impressive Bulls’ 12-12 draw there was earlier this month.

Discussing Saturday’s result, Bradford head coach Eamon O’Carroll said: “I can’t speak for everyone else, but we’re quietly confident in what we’re doing.

“We still need to be better though, because we were confident going into our three games with Wakefield and we came out on the wrong side of the result every time.

Bulls have been beaten three times by Wakefield this year, but the pair's game earlier this month was a close-run affair.Bulls have been beaten three times by Wakefield this year, but the pair's game earlier this month was a close-run affair. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“They’re a very good team but they’re human like us, and Toulouse got on very well against them on Saturday.

“That didn’t surprise me, because it’s a very tough place to go to when you take everything into account, like the travel and getting up early.

“I had to do it a lot with Catalans when we came over to the UK, so having experienced it all, it probably made me even prouder of us going there earlier this month and getting a point with only 12 men for 20 minutes.”

It was put to O’Carroll after Sunday’s edgy 36-28 win over York that maybe there was a natural drop-off for Bulls after facing the league’s two best sides in successive games in Toulouse and Wakefield.

But O’Carroll warned: “You only have to look at the results this weekend (lowly Barrow shocking high-flying Sheffield 8-6 in Cumbria for example) and you can see that anyone can beat everyone.

“You have to be at your best every single week, and that’s something we have to drive home to the players.

“We have to recognise that whoever we play will give us a difficult game and if we want to get to where we want to be, we’ll have to be good every week.”

And while O’Carroll felt most of his side were not at their best on Sunday, he praised two players with little first-team experience for their performances.

Eliot Peposhi was hailed for his work off the bench, while young Harvey Makin impressed on his debut, on loan from Wigan.

O’Carroll said: “Harvey’s someone we’ve been trying to get in for a long time.

“I really rate him, I like what he’s about and he’s probably different to some of the front rowers we’ve brought in recently.

“He’s similar to Ebon (Scurr), in how he wins the collision area, plays the ball quickly and rips out of tackles.

“I thought he showed great energy, he’s a fit lad and I challenged him to see how hard he could carry the ball and to try and win every collision defensively.

“I thought he did that and he’ll only get better now.”

Makin's fellow new loanee Dan Okoro did not play against York, with O’Carroll explaining: “We went a different way with Dan, as we’ve had a really disrupted week in terms of injuries and seeing where people were at.

“We had to bring in some bodies on loan early on in the week before we could get a full look at who was available, and we just decided to go with Eliot instead.”