BULLS captain Lee Smith believes last week’s 30-28 defeat to York City Knights will be the catalyst his side needed to push on for promotion.

Bradford recovered from a poor start with an inspired second-half comeback scoring four tries yet ultimately left themselves too much to do.

Smith praised the grit and determination of his side but insists there are lessons to be learnt ahead of the end-of-season run-in.

“Obviously there is a lot of disappointment coming out of the York game, you simply cannot start a game of rugby like that especially against an outfit like York,” said Smith.

“Giving them a 20-point head start meant we had a mountain to climb, despite the incredible grit and determination showed we left ourselves too much to do.”

“It was the simple things that caught us out, too often we made it easy for them to go through the middle we didn’t offer enough in defence this week.”

“You have to take positives out of every game, we’re still top of the league, this could be the kick we needed to show nothing is won yet, and we just need to stick to our processes.”

“Winning a championship is never easy in any sport, you go through ups and downs as part of that journey, if we can look back and say we made it through this sticky patch we’ll be better for it.”

“At this time of the season, we need to forget about everyone else focus in our game.

"We know we need to recover and get back to playing to our full potential if we can do that we’ll be in a good spot.”

Bradford will look to get back on track straight away as they face the tough trip to London Skolars down at the New River Stadium.

Despite Smith’s eagerness for his side to get back on the horse, he is aware of the task ahead, especially after London’s close call against York two weeks ago.

Smith also emphasised the improvement made by the London side since their meeting earlier in the season.

“I’m certain it will not be a score like last time, London have come on massively as a team since then, they showed that taking York all the way recently.”

“It’s so important now that we get back on the winning track, I think we need to take it back a step focus on the basics and start playing our game with confidence, then the results will come.”

“I don’t like using the phrase every game is a Grand Final, they’re big games for certain but we don’t need added pressure.

"There are different challenges coming at us, but we’ll be ready for them all.”