Cool-headed Paul Sykes didn’t think twice about taking on kicking responsibilities during those tense final minutes in Perpignan.

The Bulls centre was shunted into the limelight after regular marksman Paul Deacon went off injured midway through the second half.

Sykes missed a howler with his first shot when he hooked the simple conversion of Terry Newton’s try onto an upright.

That left his side still trailing Catalans by two points with just a few minutes to go, so the pressure was intense when a penalty chance came up in the 77th minute.

But Sykes maintained: “There was no nerves at all.

“It’s always pretty windy at the stadium in Perpignan and that affected my first one. I actually hit it well and it just caught a little, blew onto the post and back out again.

“I was a little worried because there were only a few minutes left but we stayed in it and got that next chance.

“This time it was from the other side, I took it into account, struck it fine and there were no problems.”

With Deacon on the sidelines, Sykes was also put in charge of going for an all-important drop goal.

His first long-distance boot drifted wide and second time around the desperate Catalans defenders were in his face, But the player – who was record goal-kicker at Harlequins before returning north – recalled: “I noticed there were about three of them all coming at me, all running up.

“I heard BJ calling though, passed onto him and he then worked his magic.”

Jeffries danced through to set up Dave Halley’s match-winning try with just seconds remaining, cueing manic celebrations as Bradford celebrated their first win of the season.

“It was a brilliant feeling,” said the World Cup player, who, on a personal note, produced his best display this year.

Sykes came up with a fine break to set up Rikki Sheriffe’s first-half try, showed some great footwork in possession and pulled off a try-saving tackle in the second period.

He also stunned Catalans star signing Greg Bird with one big hit that dumped the Aussie on his backside and now he is hoping to take that form into Sunday’s game with Castleford.

“I try to play the same every week,” Sykes said. “Sometimes it doesn’t happen just how you want it but if I keep doing what I’m doing hopefully it will come off.

“We go to Cas with plenty of confidence now.

“We were 18-6 up in France and could really have put plenty more points on Catalans. We played some great stuff and should have carried it on.

“We didn’t and bombed a couple of chances but we’ll look to put that right against Cas.

“They’ve been playing pretty well themselves and are an expansive side.”

Sykes will come up against hotshot Michael Shenton, who will have a point to prove himself.

Many critics thought the talented Tigers centre should have gone to Australia with England in front of Sykes last autumn.

Like most of Tony Smith’s World Cup squad, 27-year-old Sykes struggled to make his mark on the tournament and many thought Shenton would have been the better option.

Sykes will have a fight on to secure his place in the Four Nations squad at the end of this season but a big display over Shenton will help silence doubters, Meanwhile, Sykes grabbed 16 tries in his first season back at Odsal last year but is yet to get off the mark in 2009.

However, if Deacon isn’t passed fit for The Jungle, Steve McNamara knows he can definitely rely on his man to come up with the goods with his boot. Perpignan proved that.