Platt'll do for starters!

Hat-trick man Michael Platt showed Ray Quinn just what the X-Factor is all about.

Teen Scouser Quinn, who shot to fame' warbling Frank Sinatra tunes on the hit TV show, warmed up the Halliwell Jones Stadium crowd today with some dodgy renditions.

He hit a few bum notes and didn't get his timing quite right to leave onlookers wondering what all the fuss was about.

Full back Platt, on the other hand, took to the pitch to demonstrate true star quality with an individual display that left Bulls fans singing the loudest by the end of an entertaining afternoon.

If this is anything to go by, the £10,000 compensation forked out to Castleford for the player's signature will prove a real snip. And anyone still feeling Bulls made a gaffe by letting Mick Withers head to Wigan need a bigger reality check than that man Quinn.

Platt's pace and cutting edge delivered three classy tries to help forge an impressive Bulls victory.

But the former Salford man - who is still only 22 - also denied Warrington just as many scores with a series of vital last-ditch tackles that proved he isn't just a one-trick pony.

Boss Steve McNamara has labelled David Solomona as the man with the X-factor for Bulls this season but Platt - and Glenn Morrison who was again outstanding at loose forward - could be just as valuable captures.

This hard-earned victory - Bulls were 14-12 down at the break - came about largely without the services of Solomona, who suffered a shoulder injury on the half-hour mark and never returned.

But with so many other threats on the field the visitors were able to conjure up plenty of magic to blow Warrington away in the second half.

Wolves were the brighter side in the first and looked sharper than their visitors in most facets.

They shrugged off the late withdrawals of Vinnie Anderson (hamstring)and Martin Gleeson (flu), added to their other main casualties of Adrian Morley and Chris Bridge, to really shake the Bulls up.

The match started at a frenetic pace which brought a number of errors from both sides early on despite, ironically, it being played amid glorious sunshine and perfect conditions. Far different to the snow and mud they endured respectively to get wins last week.

Once they settled, Wolves caused problems offensively with their off-load game and quick play-the-balls, and that created their first score. With the Bulls defence spread-eagled following some off-the-cuff football, Jamie Langley seized the opportunity to slow it all down after tackling Chris Leikvoll but was penalised and Lee Briers slotted from in front.

Warrington increased their lead by fashioning an excellent try for Ben Westwood.

Former Bull Rob Parker was at the heart of it. The burly forward showed great speed bursting onto a flat pass from Paul Rauhihi at the line and sped clear. Platt finally hauled him in but from the next play Briers exploited another gap in the Bulls defence for Westwood to scythe through.

But then up stepped Platt for the first of his scores, racing on to Deacon's long pass wide and leaving Michael Sullivan for dead. As Platt broke clear, Stuart Reardon seemed to have his opposite number wrapped up but the full back showed good strength to bounce him off too and go over.

Warrington's forwards continued to get the better of the visitors though and quick play-the-balls had Bulls on the back foot. When Briers shaped to kick on the last, he stepped past Joe Vagana to get them on the rack again. The Welshman's grubber out of Langley's tackle saw the Bulls slow to react and Westwood pounced for his second.

Deacon's restart bounced straight into touch to give his side a perfect opportunity to respond and after Vagana had gone close, he offloaded to Iestyn Harris, who found Morrison in support. The Aussie was well covered but he somehow managed to shrug off Jon Clarke, Briers and Reardon to get to the line and touch down between the posts.

Bulls were thankful for the score just before the hooter and so, despite being outplayed for much of the half, trailed by just two points.

They returned a different side and showed a sign of what was to come when they nearly went the length of the field with one flowing handling move involving Deacon, Harris, Morrison, Langley, Shontayne Hape and Lesley Vainikolo.

Bulls scored more mundanely when they were gifted two points by Briers. The mercurial stand-off showed his dark side by attempting a short drop-out but picked up the ball before it had gone ten metres, handing Deacon a simple shot in front.

Deacon then produced a Briers special by delivering a 40/20 kick, something Bulls had failed to do throughout the whole of 2006.

The rewards of such a tactic were immediate. From the ensuing scrum, Hape went close before Platt and Morrison combined swiftly to squeeze Vainikolo in at the corner.

The Wolves were then found guilty of the same offence as the Bulls in the first half, dozing and hesitating after Harris had slid through a grubber. Everyone stood around apart from Evans, who dived in for his first try for the club.

That came on 55 minutes and Bulls effectively sealed the match when they scored a pearler straight from the re-start.

It was Platt who took the ball to the line ten metres inside his own half and slipped a perfect delayed pass for Langley to storm through. The second-rower looped a long pass out to Morrison, who found Platt on his inside to finish off a clinical flowing move.

Deacon's conversion made it 30-14 and there looked no way back for the stunned home side, who had by now also seen winger Richie Barnett limp off.

Warrington didn't lie down though and Sam Burgess was sin-binned as Bulls battled to survive an onslaught of pressure. The young prop produced a brilliant try-saving tackle on Parker but was then yellow-carded for a professional foul as he obstructed in the next play.

Warrington remained camped on the Bulls line and Parker was denied twice more by Vagana and Vainikolo as the visitors muscled up before finally breaking after another penalty was conceded, Leikvoll going over.

Spurred on by their home support, and with Briers causing all sorts of mayhem again, Wolves looked for a double whammy to set up a grandstand finish.

But they couldn't get past Platt, who nailed Briers after the stand-off had sliced through late on and then chased back to thwart Parker again in the very next tackle.

The player then found enough energy to complete a memorable personal 80 minutes by racing 80 metres down the left touchline for his hat-trick try.

Brent Grose's hopeful kick on the last bounced perfectly into Platt's path and he turned defence into attack by tearing away.

• Start or join a debate on this issue in our online forum - Click here