LEON Pryce believes the pressure of Bulls being League One title favourites played into his side's hands during Workington's surprise victory at Odsal.

The former Bradford favourite returned to his old stamping ground and masterminded a 24-18 success to put a huge dent in their automatic promotion hopes.

The Town chief said: "The Bulls had a lot more at stake, they've been leading the table all year and winning every week by big margins.

"They were expected to win and were the bookies favourites but our experience got us over the line."

The Bradford-born coach had analysed Bulls' home defeat to title rivals York last month and used what had happened there as inspiration for his players.

He said: "That was Bulls' biggest game of the season and they collapsed in the first half, so I told the boys to find a way to stick in there and let the pressure build.

"Let's not get it wrong, Bulls could have won that game against us, but we found a way to win and we handled the pressure better than them."

Like his counterpart John Kear, Pryce felt that his side's added experience proved vital in an intense affair, citing that as the difference between victory and defeat.

He said: "I thought the players were outstanding. Tyler Dickinson was absolutely superb and Jamie Doran, who listened to me and took the line on, was a real threat.

"We had some real experience in our line-up too with the likes of Oliver Wilkes, Elliott Miller, Steve Scholey and Sean Penkywicz.

"Bulls have a very young squad, even more so than when I was here last year. This league is lot tougher and slower than Super League so when I recruited at the start of the season I knew we needed old heads."

Unsurprisingly, Pryce named Penkywicz's winning try as the decisive moment in Workington's victory, but it came as a surprise to his coach, who said: "We were drawing at that point and we were looking for the one-pointer.

"He went with his eyes though and used his experience to score that try, which was huge."