Kieran Gill is one of the few players who featured in both of Bulls’ last two Betfred Championship games away to Barrow.

And after those two humiliating defeats in July 2022 and May 2023, the second of which cost Mark Dunning his job as head coach, the centre is determined to change the script when Bradford head back to Craven Park this Sunday.

He told the T&A: “It’s definitely a chance to put things right this weekend.

“It’s always tough heading up to Cumbria, no matter who you play against, and we know Barrow have a strong squad.

“There’s no point looking at the table (Barrow currently sit second-bottom on points difference), because we know what they consist of and what it’s like playing there.

“They always get a good crowd and they’ve got very good players.

“Every year we know what we need to do there, and I think it’s just making sure we get it right in training this week.

“We need to push on for Sunday and do what we can to bounce back after Widnes.”

Bulls were woeful in the second half against Allan Coleman’s Vikings last weekend, Eamon O’Carroll watching on in horror in Cheshire as his side blew a 6-4 lead at the interval to lose 25-6.

Asked what went so wrong after the break at Widnes, Gill reflected: “We’ve lacked discipline for the last couple of weeks and it’s really affected us.

“We’ve said to each other that we’re losing these games off our own backs, and we need to be winning them.

“It’s that tough this year that every two points is needed.

“You look at that fight for places in the top six and it’s so close, it’s unbelievable.

“We went into the Widnes game with confidence and we set ourselves the standards of what we needed to do.

“But we lacked discipline and completing our own sets, and Widnes played really well to take advantage

“We can only bash our own heads together, knowing we were the ones to blame for the loss.”

Bulls could not get anything going in attack after the break, nor did they cover themselves in glory defensively.Bulls could not get anything going in attack after the break at Widnes last Sunday, nor did they cover themselves in glory defensively. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

It was a disappointing way to round off a gruelling July, which saw Bulls face likely second-placed finishers Toulouse, runaway leaders Wakefield, in-form York and a Widnes side with a near identical league record to their Odsal rivals.

Put to Gill that run of games may have taken its toll and been a mitigating factor in Sunday’s second-half collapse, the centre insisted: “It’s easy to say that, but it’s not what us players feel.

“You go into every game wanting to win, and we just take it week by week, focusing on one game at a time.

“We set ourselves a goal of where we want to be, and sometimes we don’t show the performance we’re capable of.

“We’ve got a great squad and the coaches do everything they can for us, so we have to repay that every week, not just have nice 30 or 40 minute performances.

“We have to produce 80-minute displays because there’s such quality in this league, you can’t afford to slack off, as every penalty you concede can be costly.”

Gill refuses to blame Bulls’ lengthy injury list for what went on last Sunday either, saying: “I’m just used to training with 25 blokes and if we get swapped in, so be it.

“If anyone’s willing to come into the squad, we work around it, and every 17 that gets put on the field is the team we know are capable of doing the job.

“The difficult thing this year is how tough the competition is, not us having to swap players around each week.”