Bradford Bulls glad to show they can win when chips are down

Bradford were still scoreless and looking out of ideas with 15 minutes to go, before they found a second gear to finish with a flourish.

But head coach Eamon O'Carroll warned: "I still think our management of the game can be a lot better.

"We were just better in that late on but we've got a huge area of improvement to make on that front.

"I was just happy because I told the lads at half-time that we needed a game like this, a game where it wasn't all going for us.

"I wanted to see how we responded to that and we responded really well."

Hull KR-bound Eribe Doro was one of the few players who looked lively in the Bulls attack early on, and it was almost fitting that he set up Jordan Lilley's game-changing try to put Bulls ahead with a quarter of an hour left.

Eribe Doro was the only Bulls player who really looked like creating in the first half, and he was the one who then engineered a late breakthrough for the visitors. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

Doro went off late on with cramp, but had done what O'Carroll needed him to, with the delighted Bradford head coach saying: "I can just rely on him to do his job, he turns up and does that, week in, week out.

"I told him today that nothing changed from what he usually does, except that I needed him to drag his team-mates with him.

"We know how important Reebs is to us and we're certainly going to miss him when he leaves at the end of the season."

What that end of the season looks like is still up in the air, with Bulls up to third in an extremely tight race for the top six.

This scrappy win was therefore key, with O'Carroll saying: "Us winning was what was important and getting those two points, but probably the manner of it too.

"It wasn't perfect, but then it was in a way, in terms of our effort and how we turned up for each other."