Francis Cummins admitted the Bulls made too many errors during yesterday’s thumping 46-10 defeat to Warrington in the Tetley’s Challenge Cup.

The Wolves outscored Bradford by eight tries to two in front of 5,064 fans – the lowest quarter-final crowd of the weekend.

The Bulls only trailed 18-4 at the break and Luke George’s try shortly after the restart encouraged hopes of a fightback during a second half in which owner Marc Green joined fans on the terraces.

But Warrington, who have lifted the famous old trophy three times under Tony Smith since 2009 and will now face his old club Leeds in the semi-finals, went on to score five more tries to underline the gulf in class between the sides.

Head coach Cummins said: “Warrington played well but we produced a lot of yardage errors in the first and second half.

“We had a lot of energy in the first half but came up with some simple errors and compounded them, which caught up with us in the second half.

“In warm conditions, if you are allowing the opposition repeat sets and field position, you are having to work twice as hard, although I thought our systems were really good defensively in the first half.

“We’re really improving but we made a couple of errors and they punished us – and that’s what Warrington are like.

“In the second half, you could see us ebbing away and we tried to come up with a few different things which went against us.”

Cummins also refused to pin any blame on the officiating of referee Phil Bentham, despite controversy in the build-up to Gene Ormsby’s 53rd-minute score.

He added: “Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t, but you’ve got to be able to cope with these things.”

This week looks set to prove a pivotal one in the Bulls’ season as they await the outcome of their appeal against being docked six points for entering administration.

They then face a trip to Salford on Sunday and it is to be hoped that a decision from the independent sporting sanctions appeal panel will rule on the points decision before then.

Cummins said: “It is out of my hands and if it goes on for another two weeks then so be it. That hasn’t affected things today so it’s not an issue for me.”

The Bulls boss said on-loan Hull forward Jay Pitts had sustained a knock to his ankle but added: “We don’t think it’s too serious but I wasn’t prepared to take any risks.

“With the scoreline as it was, the game had probably gone but we’re confident he will be okay for next week.”

Widnes face Castleford in the other semi-final with the ties to be played on the weekend of August 9-10.