Gareth Raynor has blasted the Bulls’ complacency in allowing a golden opportunity to slip.

Defeat to Catalan Dragons dealt a significant blow to play-off hopes, especially as the French side played most of the second half with 12 men.

David Ferriol was sent off for a high shot on James Donaldson but Bradford could nOt take advantage, conceding a further four tries to lose 34-28.

In fact, Raynor reckons the red card was a curse rather than a blessing.

He said: “Everybody is pretty down. We came into the game buzzing from the Leeds game and everything was there in our favour.

“The weather was great, we were at home, we’d had a good result against Leeds and they had a man sent off.

“That had a negative effect because we probably felt too over-confident for the first time this year.

“We didn’t need to do too much, we just needed to go through the motions. Instead we were forcing passes and dropping balls and I doubt our completion rate was very good.”

Raynor was one of the few Bulls players to impress, contributing a solid all-round display before adding a late consolation try.

The former Great Britain international is not ready to give up on Super League play-off hopes yet but admits there must be a significant improvement in effort levels.

Bradford could have cut the gap on eighth-placed Hull FC to one point with victory against Catalan. Instead they head to Castleford on Sunday in 11th and as rank outsiders for a top-eight spot.

“It was very disappointing – but it’s not over yet and we can still get in the play-offs,” said Raynor.

“We just didn’t show any desire and I reckon Catalan were there for the taking, especially with 12 men, but they just out-enthused us. They shouldn’t be doing that with 12 men.

“I think that’s where we lost it. We thought ‘they’ve got 12 men, there’s a long way to go, how can we possibly get beaten?’ “It just shows in rugby league it doesn’t matter how many men are on the pitch, you have to play for 80 minutes.

“You can’t afford to be complacent but we were complacent. We forced passes, took wrong options and did the exact opposite of what we’d done against Leeds.”