IT WAS a hit and miss weekend for Bradford Dragons as they faced a double-header road trip.

The Dragons slipped to their first league defeat of the season at Kent Crusaders, losing 82-76, but then stormed to National Cup success with an emphatic 113-39 victory at WLV Albion.

The Crusaders, having been relegated to Division Two of the National League in 2016, bounced back as champions at the first time of asking with an impressive 19-3 record.

Yet they had experienced a rocky start to the new season, losing both National Trophy games and also their opening league fixture at Manchester Magic.

However, with all three results having been close, the team remained confident their first victory was just around the corner.

So it proved against Bradford, although neither team managed to take any significant advantage during a low-scoring opening quarter in which the lead chopped and changed like a game of tennis.

As the buzzer sounded for the first of the scheduled breaks in play, it was the Dragons who held the smallest of leads at 16-15.

The 'tennis' continued into the second period but it was the visitors who managed to take the first real grip, building up an eight-point margin (34-26) with only three and a half minutes of the first half remaining.

The Kent side would not let go and quickly cut the deficit back to only three (34-31). Then up stepped Marcus Gooding with one of his trade mark three-pointers to send Bradford into the half-time interval with a slightly healthier-looking advantage at 37-31.

The Crusaders started the third quarter with a couple of quick lay-ups to pull the gap back to two points, before Rihards Sulcs put up the first score of the period for the Dragons.

The home side continued to push hard and it was not long before they edged themselves ahead once more, following a couple more lay-ups from Alex Ferguson.

Then a combination of scores from Bradford trio Eisley Swaine, Rafi Saipe and Sulcs allowed their side to restore a three-point cushion (59-56) at the end of the penultimate period.

That lead was quickly overturned at the start of the fourth quarter and once the Crusaders got their noses ahead, they never allowed the Dragons a route back into the contest.

Gooding topped the scoring charts for Bradford, bucketing 17 points including four three-pointers. Saipe added 15 and Ricky Fetske contributed 14. Also worthy of mention is Swaine, who came off the Dragons bench to contribute 11 points to his team's tally.

However, the game's highest scorer was Sean Nealon-Lino of Kent, who totalled 24 points towards the winning score.

The Dragons had an early opportunity to put the disappointment of defeat behind them as they faced third division outfit WLV Albion (Wolverhampton) in the National Cup the next day.

Cup rules state that Division One teams can only field a single non-EU player against lower-division opposition and therefore Gooding was sacrificed in favour of fellow American Fetske.

However, despite the two-division gap between the two sides, no-one could have predicted the manner in which Bradford secured their passage through to the fourth round.

In a totally one-sided affair, the Dragons bludgeoned their hosts in all four quarters of the game to take the victory by a massive 74 points.

Fetske repaid coach Chris Mellor's decision to play him by scoring 23 points, while Swaine capped another impressive performance with 19 points – his highest tally for the club. Saipe also continued his rich vein of form, adding another 18 points.

The Dragons will next host Derby Trailblazers, with the game due to be played on Sunday, October 29.

Mellor stated after the weekend's fixtures: "Kent was a close game throughout but our defence was not good enough in the fourth and our rebounding overall was poor.

"Against WLV, we got out to a big lead early on and it was a very comfortable win. But it was disappointing to not come home with two wins from the weekend."

The Dragons host Leicester Warriors in the league this Saturday, with a 6.15pm tip-off at the Dragons Den.

* THE Dragons under-14s suffered their first defeat of the season, losing all four quarters in an 81-32 reverse at Hatfield Fliers.