BRADFORD Bulls star, George Flanagan, claims the feeling was of "heartbreak" following his side's last minute 10-9 defeat away to Widnes Vikings on Sunday.

The Bulls had their lead snatched away from them in dramatic fashion, following a penalty incident which Jack Owens converted deep into stoppage time.

Danny Brough had put the away side 8-9 ahead on minute 79 with a drop goal attempt, but it wasn't to be enough.

And Flanagan suggested that after after the game, the changing room was a place of sorrow.

He said: "At full-time, the dressing room was very much like a morgue if I'm honest with you.

"Everybody had their heads down and we were all heartbroken. We found out the results of the other games too and realised that they had gone in our favour so it was definitely a bitter pill to swallow.

"It was heartbreaking, it was gut-wrenching and the dressing room was extremely disappointed."

Flanagan added: "To lose a game like that is not nice. It's brilliant when you are on the right side of a victory like that, but to lose a game in that manner is one of the worst feelings.

"It adds to the frustration too, especially when you have defended as well as we did-restricting Widnes to only one try.

"Ultimately, we thought we'd done enough to win the game but that's how rugby can go."

Despite the narrow defeat against Widnes, Flanagan was full of praise for Bradford's resilient defence after nullifying Widnes to only one try, which in comparison to the 11 tries conceded against Toulouse, it was a sterling effort.

He said: "The improvement was massive from the Toulouse game. On the defensive side of things, I think we've been pretty good all year with the exception of a couple defeats.

"But at the end of the day, Toulouse are the best side in the competition and it was a tough test for us.

"We wanted a reaction and we definitely got one against Widnes. We worked hard in the week leading up to the game on our defence and I thought we were defensively outstanding, only conceding one try in the match.

"But overall, I think we need to be scoring more points and it's something we will look to work on in the lead up to our final game against Whitehaven."

Bradford do host the latter on Sunday in the final league game of the Betfred Championship season, before entering the season-defining play-offs.

And Flanagan is hoping his side can brush off their previous two league defeats in hope of finishing the campaign on a high.

He said: "It's important that we go into the Whitehaven game with a clean slate because we need to regain confidence ahead of the play-offs. We'll do that if we prepare right and have a good week at training with the lads supporting each other.Whitehaven have been a bit of surprise package this season so we won't be underestimating them one bit."