ETHAN Ryan will celebrate his 50th Bulls appearance tonight on top of League One.

And the flying winger hopes that by the time he reaches the century mark, they will be knocking on the door to get back into Super League.

Ryan claimed four tries in a man-of-the-match performance against London Skolars last week to take his tally to 11 for the season.

With Newcastle’s pacey pitch made for the backs, the loud travelling support will be hoping to cheer him over for more this evening to mark his personal milestone.

Ryan scored a try on his debut against London in March 2016 at a time when the Bulls were pushing to get back in the top flight. He would love to go full circle by the next landmark.

He said: “When I first came into the team, we were in and around the top of the Championship pushing back up to Super League.

“It would be good to get out of League One and hopefully in the next 50 games’ time we might be back up there again.

“It doesn’t seem like two minutes ago since I made my debut at Odsal. But it’s my third season now.

“From making your debut as a lad coming through the academy to someone playing in the first team now, you progress as a player and a person as well.

“We’ve been through a lot with the liquidation and everything and it’s just good to get past all that and reach this milestone.”

The size of Newcastle’s Kingston Park home will assist Ryan, whose partnership with Lee Smith inside him at left centre is beginning to flourish.

Ryan believes he is striking up a good understanding with the club captain.

“Smithy and I are finally getting to know how each other plays,” he added.

“We linked up quite well last weekend to score one of the tries and I feel it’s clicked now between us. It’s good to have that little partnership going.

“It’s something I’ll look to carry on tonight. We’re gelling quite well at the minute and it will be good to see what we can do on quite a fast track.”

Newcastle anticipate a record crowd with so many fans already up in the north-east for the Magic weekend. But Ryan knows the Bulls will once again be well backed by their own travelling army.

“It’s going to be an electric atmosphere with an awful lot of neutrals for the Magic weekend. It will be good to see a big crowd up there.

“We know our fans travel well and the majority may well be supporting Bradford, so it might even feel like a home game.

“Everywhere we go, our support is there. It’s a massive help for us because we know they are going to turn out and be loud each week.

“Especially in the big games, like when we went to York and Doncaster, it really helped us. It was even a massive lift at Warrington, even though the result didn’t go for us, to see so many turn out like that.

“We’re where we want to be in the league at this stage – on top. We’d quite like to be by a couple of points rather than points difference but I think we’ve done very well so far.

“We’ve gone into this league respecting all our opponents and we’ve got to continue to do that for the rest of the season.”