BRADFORD & Bingley succumbed to a fourth defeat in succession, losing 26-24 at West Leeds but collected a 16th bonus point of the season in North One East.

This defeat seems to end any hope the now fifth-placed club had of being involved in the promotion race as Anthony Posa's men are now 16 points off the pace set by Morpeth and Scarborough with nine games left to play.

The home side remain in the relegation slots, despite this excellent win, but there seemed enough spirit about how they played to suggest that they might just fight their way out of the bottom three to safety in their remaining fixtures.

The game hinged on a five-minute period around the half hour mark where the Bees gave away two interception tries, where a West Leeds player snatched a loose pass out of the air as Bradford and Bingley pressed the West Leeds line.

First to gallop away was Sam Thornton on 27 minutes as he was first to react to a loose pass in the middle of the pitch.

No sooner had the West Leeds supporters finished celebrating that score than they saw Alex Hughes making a 95-metre dash to the right-hand corner after he snatched a pass which should have put a Bees player in at the left-hand corner of the West Leeds try line.

Despite the spirited length of the field charge after the West Leeds man, Ante Majic was not quite fast enough to catch Hughes as he scampered away.

Before those two scores went in, West Leeds were only two points behind their visitors, although it looked as if one of the Bees attacks would surely break the last line of the home defence as West Leeds were pinned in their own 22 for long periods.

West Leeds had opened the scoring on nine minutes when left winger Eliah Chitiyo wriggled away from the Bees defence in the corner to scoot over for the score.

The Bees replied five minutes later as scrum-half Lance Taylor floated out a nicely weighted kick to his right which was collected by Bees' top scorer, Jack Malthouse, although the wing man still had a fight on his hands to make the whitewash. Taylor slotted the conversion, making it 7-5 to the visitors with around 15 minutes played.

The two interception tries put a slightly different complexion on the game as the Bees were now chasing a significant deficit.

The Bees shunned the opportunity to kick a penalty here and there, preferring to keep the high tempo and keep West Leeds back pedalling.

Right on half time, the Bees got their second try as Tom Bacon battered his way over the line.

Keir Breakwell had just slotted a penalty for the home side, so until Bacon's timely intervention, it looked like a dominant Bees side would be turning round 20-7 down.

With Taylor adding the extras, the sides came out for the second half separated by six points, but within two minutes Sam Marshall had added a penalty to stretch the home advantage to 23-14.

Five minutes later, the same player increased the deficit to 12 with a second penalty. On 52 minutes, the Bees collected a third try as Tom Cummins made the final hard yards to collect a score which Taylor improved.

Four minutes after the Cummins score, Taylor took the pragmatic option to slot a penalty, bringing his side to within two, but they could not add any further points.