COLTON Roche says to succeed at Featherstone, Bradford Bulls must stop their new "X-Factor" Dane Chisholm.

But, he maintained that the Bulls will be focusing on their own game as well.

Kear's men face a trip to Fev on Sunday for a crunch clash in the race for promotion, with both sides sat level on points.

Bulls enigma Chisholm was loaned to Saturday's opponents in April before the deal was made permanent this month.

Since then, the scrum half has impressed at Fev and was given the man of the match award against York at the Summer Bash.

Roche said: "He's the X-Factor player - you saw on Saturday, his feet, he's very evasive, he's also pretty good defensively as well.

"So I'm sure he'll be one of our main focuses this week.

"We've got to combat that and try play our shapes and concentrate on ourselves as well.

"Hopefully we can get a good win over Fev."

The season is just over the half-way stage now and points are becoming vital with top-of-the-table as tight as ever.

Bulls' loss against Halifax in the final fixture of Saturday's Summer Bash meant they have gone two games without a victory in the Championship.

Roche said: "We're not out of it, but Halifax was a big game.

"All we can do is look forward to this week.

"I know it's a bit of a cliche, but that is all you can do in sport.

"We've just got to dust ourselves off - we've got a massive game against Featherstone who were outstanding on Saturday.

"We've just got to forget about the Halifax game really and go again."

On a personal level, Roche will be happy to get minutes on the pitch after a frustrating period.

The prop made his loan move to the Bulls permanent last week and said he wants a return to the levels he hit playing at the club in 2017 under Geoff Toovey when he scored three tries across 25 games.

Roche added: "I'm pleased to be back here really. It's a club that's quite dear to me.

"I'm quite hopeful that I can get back to my form from 2017.

"I want to find that form again. Obviously I've had a year where I've not been playing.

"Then playing at Workington and just training at Huddersfield, and then coming back and training here.

"I just need to find that bit of consistency really."

"I know that when I'm here, I'm in contention every single week.

"I know that, if I train well, then I'll probably get the chance.

"Then, if I play well then I'll probably get the chance to play again the week after that as well. So that's always a positive."