IMO its keep Orr quite and you shut down Castleford.

Cas lost because they couldnt cope
with Bulls runs from dummy
half. 3 of every 6 at least
punished Cas like that.

Don't know what poetic form that is, but it's way better than haiku!

Cas lost Danny Orr mid-way through the 2nd half, which obviously didn't help them, but when you look at their squad on paper they are way higher up the league than you would expect.
Michael Platt is quite right to feel annoyed at being overlooked for the England setup when players like Ferres are being called up. The guy is a talentless carthorse and was completely outplayed by Platt today.

Fantastic defensive effort from all the Bradford players today. We withstood everything Cas threw at us and the final 15 minutes were nail biting but we stood strong and got the 2 points we deserved.

I felt we were stronger in the forwards with both Lynch and Scruton being far superior then Huby and the rest of the Cas pack. Scruton for me has been a bit average this season but turned on the sort of form that shows why he was picked for England. Heath coming on from the bench killed the tiring Cas defenders and gained us vital yardage.

The scoreline was a closer then it should have been as Cas scored of 2 of our mistakes. They never looked like scoring from close range and when Chase was closed down they looked average. They have been overachieving this season in my opinion and may have been found out today.

We didn't seem to pick up any fresh injuries and will hopefully take a full squad over to St Helens on Friday. If we can perform like we did today then we'll push them all the way. Finally, great support again from the Bradford fans. Well done to Cas for bringing a fair few as well. Fantastic game of Rugby.

I had my back to play looking at the clock counting down and then it stopped at 2 seconds I couldn't understand why and turned round to see the scrum had formed lol.

Absolutely immense today what a great afternoon! Superb defence.

As others have said great defensive effort from the team today, I think we still need to work on attack but all in all a great game to watch. My one complaint is our kicking, not just in game but when we go for touch after a penalty...why oh why can't we seem to make more metres? I remember watching the preseason games with Briggs, Herbert and thinking our kicking game had improved a great deal, I just hope when Briggs comes back in we pick up that form again.

As for the Cas fans who were chanting some racist abuse outside the stadium after the game had finished, well done you've dragged your town and club down a little today, I know it's the minority but it was a disgrace nonetheless.

I'm shocked to hear that. I thought they were great the ones I spoke to. No room for that at all bad form

Much improved performance especially in defence. Though BK and Heath were massive for us. Platt was a monster in defence and put some hits in. Big improvement from Paddy and Sykes.

Briggs back will be a massive boost for us, relieves some kicking pressure from Herbert who is slowly getting there.

Excellent game, really enjoyed it

I thought that we bullied them in the forwards to be honest - once we got on top, and certainly when Scruton came on, we dominated them in the forwards. That set the platform for some great 'go forward' - how good was Heath L'Estrange at making great yards from dummy half? We can obviously do that a lot more when the forwards are doing the hard graft down the middle.

I agree that Herbert needs to improve. His kicking was aimless. but I expect that Briggs will take a lot of that load once he comes back, which I assume will be next week. I also thought some of his passing was wayward - one at head height, the next one round the knees. Frankly I expected better. But, to be fair to the lad, he took a bang on the head so did well to even complete the 80 minutes

Sykes did OK - crazy pass into touch apart, and I thought Royston put in a good shift in a position that obviously isn't his best. He had to curb his usual 'follow the ball and back up' policy because of his need to cover out wide, and I thought he did it pretty well. And clearly Ah Van is better on the wing than in the centre, so maybe Royston will be in the centres again.

All in all, a stirring performance and a great win, a win that would have almost certainly have ended up being a loss last season.

great performance, much improved. we looked quite balanced today and I was impressed with our hand speed to get the ball down the line today.

Sykes had a great game today, who says his defence is poor?!

I'm looking forward to Briggs coming into the side, hopefully he will add another dimension to our attacking game.

I was chatting with my brother and he was saying we could do with a Brad Mackay style player back when it came to kicking for touch. He seemed to launch it miles IIRC.

Briggs does launch it.

And well done to Elima for getting his first Bulls try !!!

Complete rubbish. He had a decent game, 2 or 3 decisions I thought might be wrong but I was, probably like you, 50m away & would need to see them on the video to convince myself. The booing at the end was pathetic.

Despite the erratic dishing out of penalties I thought he got most things right with the only possible cause for a grievance being the knock on at the end that gave the scrum to Castleford but that should have been spotted by the touch judge.

What was the penalty count?

I agree, i think, but it happened so quick with the kick there is no way I could be sure either way. You said Bulls got panalised 8 times last week for not square at PTB, another 3 or 4 today is concerning.

Out of the 13 penalties given away at Huddersfield 8 of them where for not square offside at the play the ball.

Today it was around half that with the majority in the first half so it looks like Potter has addressed the problem today.

A quick look at my note pad says Bradford 7-9 Castleford.

Just back home having watched a great game.

Agree with most of what people have mentioned already. For me another good thing (maybe not today but for the rest of the season) was we won despite bombing 3-4 good scoring oportunities. If we can start finishing those moves off then we can challenge most teams. Game could have been over at half time.

I'm pleased with how Herbert is working out, maybe his kicking wasn't the best today but he's a big scrum half and was putting himself about in defence. Wasn't far off some clean breaks and hopefully will get sharper. I think his distribution was better than some are giving him credit for. For him and Briggs, more than any of the other new guys, its going to take time for them to get up to speed.

Good to see Lynch shouting at people after the first try, seemed to have an effect as we tightened the defence up after that.

The impact of two first teamers coming back was obvious. Langley was a machine as usual and L'Estrange was awesome off the bench. Got 3 more probable first team players to come back, should only get better. Who to play where though!



Lastly, I was in the Coral stand today and it was noticable how many people stayed back behind the tunnel to clap the team off. Everybody was commenting on it after the game. Cheered me up no end so I'm sure it must have had an effect on the team. Good skills Bulls fans

Good result which showed a lot of character, we were far better defensively and more composed when under pressure, and the good crowd added a lot to the atmosphere.

One thing I don't get is the criticism of Herbert, I thought a lot of the good things we did today flowed from him, he's getting up to speed bit by bit and I think he'll make a very good addition when he clicks in a more settled half-back partnership. Those who criticise his kicking miss the fact that for the most part he was kicking tactically and finding the ground, even in the last ten mins when under pressure on his own 30/40m line. The kicks might not have been long but they found the ground and enabled our forwards to get up and close the space, much rather that than have a fullback/winger receive it on the full and have metres to get up to speed. He was also visibly organising things and directing the forwards and when working set moves his passes were fine, he can also defend and after dropping the ball from a restart worked hard over the next two sets before putting in a hit that got us the ball back. How anyone can talk of dropping him, just as he's starting to get used to the team and the english game is beyond me.

Other notables - Platt - after all the abuse he took has now demonstrated over and over again why the club were right to have faith in him. The Heath/Diskin combo could really bare fruit, looked very promising today. Ah van - his work rate for a winger was excellent, and when the forwards were tiring he was willing time and time again to run the ball in, also proved decent under the high ball today. Koppy did a good stint, Scruton was back to his best and having Langley back really stiffens our defense. So all in all, good progress, i think with Briggs back and kearney playing fullback full time we have a decent looking squad if we can begin to gain some consistency and composure and use this as a confidence builder.

Excellent effort today, well done to all the players. A good shift in the forwards from all, especially Scruton and Elima. I thought L'Estrange really made a difference when he came on, adding some pace to the play the ball and his enthusiamsm seemed to lift the players. Big improvement from Sykes, some good hits and direct running from Platt, and a fantastic effort at stand off and full back from Kearney.

I think this was an important win, it showed me, and maybe others, that we are really a different proposition to last year. Last years team would have folded in those last 10 min, I'm sure. This team today didn't fold. It might not win trophies this team, but we should have more good days than bad, which is a start.

This game reminded me why I love rugby league, what a nailbiter, great support from the fans, great scenes at the end with practically everyone staying to cheer the team off. Still too many errors, poor last tackle options etc., but what really stood out was how much the players wanted the win. Not the best ever game, but a great day to be there.

big improvement from last week. L'estrange looked like he'd never been injured and really sparked us to life when he came on. sykes was much better too. big call for potter next week whether royston retains spot or sykes comes in. Imo beither did much wrong today. hopefully briggs to come in next week to give us a bit more of a kicking game.

Onwards and upwards.