MATT Diskin saluted the Bulls after they destroyed Dewsbury 52-18 to get their promotion bid back on track.

Jimmy Lowes’ side had lost three of their previous four games but Kris Welham’s five-star display capped a dominant second-half performance.

Bradford led 14-12 at the interval but they ran amok after the break as Omari Caro’s breakaway scores and Alex Mellor’s first senior try put them in control.

After scoring a first-half double, Welham went on to bag three more tries in the final quarter and become the first player since the legendary Lesley Vainikolo to score five tries or more in a game.

Assistant boss Diskin said: “We knew that if we got to the right set-up points, we would have space on the edges, so rather than overplay let’s take advantage of the space and run through it.

“Kris got the benefit of that but the first half was very tough.

“Even though these teams are only part-time, they are very competitive and Dewsbury showed that.

“Yes, we are a competitive team and we should be fitter and stronger, but sometimes that energy and enthusiasm can take these teams a long way.

“Dewsbury were brilliant in that first half, and our completion rate wasn’t great, but we were very disciplined in the second half and were very clinical in what we did.

“We’re not going to get carried away. In the last few weeks, it has been well documented that we haven’t been playing and there has been a million clichés come out in the press about it.

“The simple thing is that we haven’t been playing well and we needed to get back to doing that.

“That starts by doing the little things right – making your tackles, taking your hard carries and your confidence comes with that.

“Today was hopefully a start of a step in the right direction but without being arrogant we should be beating these teams.”

Lowes was absent from training all last week due to illness but was present yesterday.

Diskin added: “Jimmy has been ill, so the coaching staff and myself have led things up this week and we’ve had a good week’s training, culminating in a good performance today.

“Jimmy was here today in some capacity, although I know he’s not too well, but to put 50 points on any team is a great result.”

Academy centre Ross Oakes played 80 minutes on his debut and did not look out of place.

Under-19s boss Diskin added: “I’ve worked with him in the academy and, without doing anything amazing today, he looked really solid.

“He couldn’t have asked any more from his professional debut. I thought him and Ethan Ryan were very good on that right edge.

"Dan Fleming and Paul Clough were outstanding too, so the competition for places is increasing with players coming back.”