Bradford Bulls boss knows Sheffield may be make or break

But Bradford went to Featherstone and won there for the first time in nine years in April, while they dug deep in adversity to draw in France against Toulouse in July, good results that have contributed to them sitting third in the table with four games left.

Asked if victory tomorrow at sixth-placed Sheffield would make a statement, especially after defeats to Widnes and Featherstone in the past six weeks, Bulls head coach Eamon O’Carroll said: “We’ve got a decision to make as a group about whether we want to kick on or make things hard for ourselves.

“We know we’d be in second if we hadn’t lost to Featherstone by a point, we’ve not shied away from that, but we want to use that defeat as fuel.

“We keep reiterating to the group how important it is to perform each week, but for now we’re solely focused Sheffield and we understand the challenges they’ll pose.

“They’re a smart football team, who’ll throw the ball around and test us in areas where we’ve probably not been at our best, in terms of our edge defence.

“We’ve highlighted that as something we want to be good at this weekend.”

Sheffield are looking vulnerable in the play-off race after four defeats in a row, combined with not having long-serving head coach Mark Aston on the touchline.

He and Sheffield physio Mick Heys have been suspended on a “no-fault basis” by the club since the end of July, with the RFL investigating an undisclosed medical compliance matter, ahead of the pair's tribunal next month.

Sheffield have been competitive for the most part in those defeats however, and O’Carroll insisted: “They’re still performing, so that situation isn’t something we’ll reference or comment on to the players.

“It happened a few weeks ago and Sheffield are clearly cracking on with what they’ve got to do and they’ve still got a lot to play for.

“We won’t be taking their off-field situation into account.”

Nor are Bulls taking the exciting prospect of the play-offs into account just yet.

O’Carroll said: “That’s my job, to make sure the focus is only on Sheffield for now.

“It’s that close at the minute that you could be out of the race with a defeat or two, so we’re certainly not cemented in the top six yet.

Bulls cannot afford too many more afternoons like they had at Widnes last month, or else they might find themselves missing out on the play-offs altogether. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“We need to make sure we continue to perform and I think at our best we can challenge most teams.

“A lot of the games this year we’ve not got over the line in have been us causing our own downfall, but even when we’ve not been at our best and lost, we’ve been competitive.

“There have been no blowout scores against us this year from memory and I think we’ve still been highly competitive in those games.

"But we’ve probably drifted away from what we’ve practiced and done well, then not got back to that quickly enough.

“I think we’re making the right strides on that front, but the proof will be in the pudding this Sunday.”

O’Carroll certainly hopes his side can use what they did well in last Friday’s win at Dewsbury to help them see off Sheffield.

He said: “I thought we were back to our best against Dewsbury in terms of the collision and our yardage defence.

“To not concede a try was really pleasing, because like when that happened against Whitehaven a couple of weeks prior, Dewsbury did throw a lot at us.

“We had to do a lot of defending in the first half, so I was happy with our resilience there, but most pleasing was definitely the collision.

“I thought we took a good stride forward in that area, because I felt we’d dropped off over the last few weeks on that, which I wasn’t happy with.

“Our defence has been pretty good in the last few weeks, as we’ve only conceded four tries in the last four games and nilled two teams.

“We’re not getting too excited by that but I feel like we’re getting back to our best defensively and it’s important we replicate that this weekend.”

And things are largely looking better on the injury front too, despite prop Logan Bayliss joining Kieran Gill, Jordan Baldwinson, Chester Butler, Billy Jowitt, Will Oakes and Jarrod Sammut on the treatment table.

O’Carroll said: “Joe Arundel’s back training with the team, which is good, though Logan will be out for a couple of weeks with a hip flexor issue.

“We’re pretty healthy at the minute though, and I actually got to name the team at training on Thursday, which I haven’t been able to do all year, I’ve had to wait for the last session on the Saturday or the day of the game itself.

“Some lads will be disappointed to miss out, but that’s a strong position for us to be in.”