The Bulls overcame the last-minute withdrawal of scrum half Paul Deacon with a stomach complaint and an appalling refereeing performance to beat Salford 35-28 at the Willows yesterday.

It took a Mick Withers field goal two minutes from time to seal the points after the Bulls had overturned a 16-10 half-time deficit through two-try efforts from Lesley Vainikolo and Paul Johnson and a composed display that included a try and three goals from replacement stand off Chris Bridge.

The Bulls were hammered 8-4 in the penalty count but it was Reds coach Karl Harrison who was left fuming by Barnsley referee Ronnie Laughton's performance after a late Andy Coley try - that would have tied the scores - was ruled out. The incident followed Bridge being allowed to play on and score a fine solo try after appearing to give himself up for an obvious shepherd.

A fuming Harrison said: "If it wasn't for a couple of dubious refereeing decisions we could have been 28-28 but we ended up being 34-22 down. I'm sick and tired of talking to referees' controller Stuart Cummings and the refereeing standards are just getting worse and worse.

"Four tries during the game came through poor refereeing decisions."

Noble was equally unimpressed with Laughton after the Bulls failed to receive a single first-half penalty, but all he would say was: "What can I say about the referee? He's got a good haircut."

Salford were never going to be a soft touch at home and Noble continued to accentuate the positives after another battling performance.

"Any team that come here needs to understand they are going to be in for a fight and we knew that," he said. "When you look at the possession stats, every time we didn't complete for two or three sets we put ourselves under pressure, which you can't do in this weather. Every time we completed for two or three sets we scored points. There is a big message there.

"I'm really pleased. We had a big disruption when Paul Deacon pulled out but Chris Bridge came onto the bench and put in a big show."