BULLS head coach Jimmy Lowes said he was "pleased with a lot of things" from yesterday's 22-14 pre-season defeat at Castleford.

First-half tries from Jay Pitts, Ryan Shaw and Adrian Purtell put Lowes' men 14-6 up at the break but the Tigers largely dominated the second half.

Inspired by the intricate probing of former Bulls scrum half Luke Gale, Daryl Powell's men scored three second-half tries and nilled their opponents.

Lowes also lost new signing Jean-Philippe Baile to a hamstring strain late on and the Frenchman will be assessed today.

Yet the Bulls boss said: "The results of these games are not the most important thing for us and I wanted to give everyone a good stint, as I will do in the next couple of weeks.

"It beats training, it gives us a greater work-out and I enjoyed watching the boys play for the first time.

"We started the game okay and I was pleased with a lot of things. It was never going to be picture-perfect but some of the stuff we've tried to work on is getting there.

"We're not quite there yet but as long as they keep trying and put into play what we've practised during the past ten to 12 weeks, then I think we will have a good go at the Championship."

A crowd of 3,844 turned out to support Andy Lynch's testimonial match and the former Bradford captain backed his old club to have a serious crack at promotion this year.

"They've made some great signings and they showed in this match that they can compete with Super League sides," said the 35-year-old prop.

"They've got a few more players to come back in and Jimmy and Rhino (Karl Harrison) will have them in great shape.

"It's going to be tough for them down in the Championship – but maybe going down was the best thing for them, so they can rebuild and come back buzzing into Super League."

Dave Petersen, Matty Blythe and Dan Fleming are currently sidelined through injury but Dale Ferguson could feature in next Sunday's home friendly against former club Huddersfield.