ELLIOT Minchella is aiming for an immediate Bulls fightback from the “reality check” of their first Championship loss.

After back-to-back victories since promotion, John Kear’s side were seen off 24-10 at Sheffield last week.

As they prepare for Sunday’s tasty home clash with York, vice-captain Minchella admitted the defeat was an eye-opener.

Recap: Bulls suffer first defeat at Sheffield Eagles

He said: “We believed we could go there and win and it was really disappointing. It’s been a reality check for us.

“It’s only three games in so it’s not the end of our season but it shows that we’ve got a lot to work on.

“We’ve come up from League One and got put in our place by a good team.”

The Bulls had looked on course to make it three straight wins when Ross Oakes and Ethan Ryan tries put them 10-0 up. But Sheffield took over as the first half wore on – and then bossed the second 40 minutes.

Minchella added: “I thought that we had momentum. It felt that we had the upper hand after 20-25 minutes.

“If we had kicked on just before half-time and cleared our sets then the game was there for the taking.

“But we didn’t do that and let them back in. The second half was quite ridiculous.

“They had twice as much ball as us. John said they had over 20 sets to our 12, so you’re never going to win a game like that.”

Kear was fuming at his team’s lack of discipline, which saw James Green sent off soon after the restart. Jordan Lilley was also yellow-carded for dissent, which left the Bulls playing the closing stages with just 11 men.

“We have to work on that,” said Minchella. “There are no excuses.

“Sixteen penalties, a sending off and a sin bin just isn’t good enough.

“It’s hard enough when you’re playing with 13 against a good team, never mind being down to 11 players.

“We had 35 minutes with 12 and then the last 10 with 11, so you’re up against it then.”

Minchella was involved in the tackle which sparked Green’s dismissal, coming to blows with Sheffield’s Ben Blackmore, who was sin-binned.

Minchella said: “Three of us had the man and the ball. I don’t know who struck who first, whether it was Greeny or on him, but a couple of punches were thrown and an elbow, whatever.

“You can’t do that or you’ll be sitting on the sideline. But I’m not blaming the referee for the result – we lost the game ourselves.”