Ben Jeffries has his eyes set on a Super League play-off push after watching the Bulls’ Challenge Cup dream die.

Defeat to Wigan ended interest in the knock-out competition for another year and immediately switched focus to an ailing league campaign.

Bradford sit 12th, with make-or-break fixtures against Salford and Harlequins – the two teams directly above them in the table – up next.

But, despite suffering a sixth defeat in eight games on Sunday, the manner of the performance has Jeffries daring to dream. He said: “We’re disappointed we’re not in the next Challenge Cup round but it’s all about Super League now and if we play like that every week, we could be in for a good year.

“I wouldn’t call the Salford game a must-win because every game is a must-win but you have to beat the teams around you to do any good.

“Without saying ‘must-win’, we’re not stupid. We’re professional players and we understand what we have to do and what we can do.”

A surprise mid-season signing from Wakefield, Jeffries only arrived at Odsal three weeks ago but has already tasted defeat twice.

Still, the Aussie half-back has no regrets about his decision and saw signs of growth between the 46-18 reversal at Hull KR and Sunday’s narrow Challenge Cup loss.

“Sometimes you can’t look at results straight away,” he said.

“I understood they were probably down a little bit in confidence but you wouldn’t say that after the Wigan game.

“The coaches put down a good game-plan and told us to move the ball around on them. We did that and we tested them.

“We know there’s a few defensive things we have to work on, and attack too.

“We worked on them hard during the week and most of the game we went all right. But they’re a good attacking side and they’re pretty smart, so when they had numbers they exploited us.

“But we did the same thing to them as well.”

Forced to play almost an hour of Sunday’s game with 12 men, after Gareth Raynor was controversially sent off, the Bulls’ defended admirably against heavy Wigan pressure.

The reigning Super League champions had plenty of ball during the second half but could not kill the game off.

“It takes twice as much energy to defend your own line and if you keep doing it every couple of minutes you’ll run out of juice,” added Jeffries.

“But it was a great effort by the boys and we can take a lot out of that game going into next week against Salford.”

* Raynor will appear before the RFL Disciplinary Committee this evening charged with making a Grade B high tackle on Wigan full back Sam Tomkins during Sunday’s Challenge Cup fifth-round tie.