MATT Diskin expects the Bulls to appoint a new boss within the next fortnight as he confirmed he will be joining Batley at the end of the season.

Diskin recently agreed to become Batley's head coach from October and is currently in interim charge at Bradford as the search for Jimmy Lowes' successor continues.

It had been suggested that under-19s coach Diskin could be tempted to take the reins on a permanent basis at Odsal.

But he said yesterday: "I agreed with Batley that I will be going there at the end of the year and I'm a man of my word.

"We shook hands on it and the opportunity to go there as head coach was too good to turn down. Batley is a well-run little club and I'm really looking forward to going there."

Diskin, assisted by Chev Walker, will take charge of Sunday's trip to promotion rivals London Broncos but the new man could be in place for the visit of Swinton on May 15.

Diskin said: "The club are saying they want to have it done as quickly as possible, so I think it will happen within the next couple of weeks.

"Hopefully we can have a good win this week, which would be something positive for the new coach coming in to build on and put his own mark on.

"We haven't been given a timescale but we've been told they are looking to make the appointment as quickly as possible and they will keep us informed.

"That might be one week, two weeks or until the end of the year, I don't know.

"We'll take it one week at a time and this week I've got the opportunity to coach a great bunch of lads, put a little bit of my mark on things and get them playing some attractive football.

"I'm contracted until the end of the season and I'd be happy to stay in charge until then if required – and I think I'm more than capable of doing that.

"But I know the club will want to make changes before we go into the middle eights. They will want to bring people in and there will be a coach who will want his own people as well.

"The club want some stability and I think having an interim head coach in myself leads to an element of instability.

"I think they need to make a decision – the right decision – and make it quickly but not rush into it."

Lee Gaskell pulled a hamstring against Dewsbury recently and remains absent this weekend but he could be back against Swinton next time out.

Rhys Lovegrove is still missing but Adam Sidlow will return this weekend and Ben Kavanagh may also feature.

BRADFORD'S Under-19s recorded an outstanding 28-18 home win over Wigan last night with tries from Joe Brown, Lewis Ainley, Cameron Connolly and two from Ross Oakes, who recently made his first-team debut.