MARK Dunning admitted the Bulls felt gutted to let Featherstone off the hook.

The joint Championship leaders saved their 100 per cent record after edging a thriller 36-30 at Odsal.

The Bulls, who had led 20-12 at half-time, also lost Joe Keyes with concussion as the half-back problems continue.

“We’re bitterly disappointed,” said assistant coach Dunning. “We just needed to be a bit smarter in a couple of areas, mostly defensively.

“Featherstone are littered with absolute quality. They haven’t been beaten for 18 months and we put 30 points on them.

“Defensively, if we’d been that little bit better we would have been going home very happy."

Ben Evans, David Foggin-Johnston and Brandon Pickersgill ran in first-half tries as the Bulls threatened to end Featherstone’s 19-match winning league run.

But Fev came back out with 20 unanswered points to turn the tide.

Dunning added: “We played with desire to make our presence felt, we were energetic and challenging in all areas of the field.

“But Featherstone had that purple patch came up with the points they needed.”

Pickersgill said: “If we’d nailed that 80-minute performance, that game was there for the taking. Half-time came at the wrong time for us.”

Joe Keyes went off late on after he appeared to be struck on the head while on the floor by Gareth Gale, who was yellow-carded.

The half-back won’t be allowed to play at Halifax next week – leaving the Bulls with more issues in the halves.

Dunning confirmed: “Joe’s very groggy and feeling sick. He was definitely concussed.”