Lee St Hilaire experienced both the highs and lows of life as a Super League head coach during his week in the Bulls’ hotseat.

With boss Steve McNamara away for much of the week on England duty, his assistant took charge of team affairs but an encouraging week ended in the disappointment of a 44-20 defeat at Crusaders.

It was the Bulls’ fourth straight loss but St Hilaire is confident the Bulls will not slip into a losing habit.

He said: “That’s showed me the highs and lows of Super League head coaching. We’ve had a very good week and this has put me back down in the dumps a little bit. But we’ll all – as a group – get back up and get ready for next week.

“The boys have been upbeat all week and the skill levels and enthusiasm had been good. We just needed to transfer that onto the field for 80 minutes.

“We started slowly and we finished average but in between we were probably the better side. We’re not looking at a losing habit by any means.”

Bradford were left to rue missed chances during a period of dominance in the middle of the game.

Mike Worrincy’s try had closed the gap to four points two minutes after the interval and although Tony Martin replied for Crusaders, the Bulls proceeded to hammer at the opposition line for 20 minutes.

They came within a whisker of scoring, Joe Wardle denied a try by the video referee, but their failure to capitalise proved to be the turning point.

St Hilaire said: “I thought in the first half we started slow and they started fairly quick. After that period there we were probably the better side for the half and finished the half fairly strong.

“We had a fair amount of the ball but I feel we were just slightly off in the execution of some of the plays to put the ball over the line.”

St Hilaire also praised the Bulls’ rookie contingent. Joe Wardle, 18, stepped up to make his first start in the absence of Michael Platt, while injury to Andy Lynch handed 20-year-old prop Steve Crossley his debut off the bench.

Danny Addy was also included among the substitutes as a result of the current injury problems.

St Hilaire said: “We were missing some key players and if you just slip Matt Orford into that side with that amount of pressure, we probably would have come away with something. That’s no disrespect to the players that were out there.

“We were missing Andy Lynch too but Steve Crossley came in and, to be fair, the young lad’s gone well. Danny Addy also came in and Joe Wardle did well up against a very good centre for Crusaders. We’ve got some young boys coming through.”