BRADFORD Bulls head coach Mark Dunning was left frustrated with his side’s “fundamental errors” last night, as he blamed shoddy work off the ball for their Betfred Championship defeat at York.

Bulls lost the game 32-16, but were 10-6 up after 30 minutes, before conceding two soft tries just before the break, then gifting York four penalties in the second half, which were all successfully kicked between the posts by James Glover.

Dunning bemoaned: “I thought we were good with the ball throughout the game, even at the end with Jordan Lilley’s try.

“The reason for us losing wasn’t down to our capabilities with the ball, I think it was how we were without it.

“We made fundamental errors in the game which cost us.”

York were smart after the break, constantly sucking the life out of Bulls with those demoralising two-pointers.

Teams often shun penalty goals for the chance of a try, but the hosts were happy to take the points on offer.

Dunning said: “It was good game management by York to keep the scoreboard ticking over, and I thought they managed the whole game particularly well.

“But if you keep coming up with penalties, teams are going to take advantage.”

Man of the match last week, full-back Tom Holmes was one of several Bulls players to make costly mistakes throughout the night, costing his side points.

He was nowhere near the standards he set last week, but Dunning said: “That’s sport.

“We’re not going to throw him under the bus, we’ll just have a look at his performance and dissect it.”

Holmes is naturally a half-back, but the star men in that position last night were the York pairing of Liam Harris and Jesse Dee, the latter primarily a second row.

They formed a potent pivot against Bulls after stand-off Matty Marsh limped off early, with Dunning saying: “I thought Liam had a good game, as did Jesse Dee, who I think got man of the match.

“He slotted into the halves well, like he has in this country before and when he played in Australia.

“I thought York dealt with losing Matty Marsh in there well, reminiscent of us when we lost a key player (Jack Walker) against Whitehaven.”

Like Holmes, Ben Blackmore was another member of the backline who will not look back on his night too fondly.

The winger was even the recipient of a lesser-spotted green card, with Dunning explaining: “Nowadays, if someone goes down and a member of the medical team member comes on to see to them, and stays on the pitch, the player has to go off the field for two minutes.

“That didn’t happen once in the first half when a York player went down and was treated, but it is what it is, and by the letter of the law, it was the right call by the referee to show Ben the green card.”

Dunning had no fresh injuries to report for Bulls immediately after the game, though he did explain why a couple of players missed out on selection.

He said: “Josh Johnson has been ill, and he has found it really hard to shake that off.

“He trained on Saturday and we thought he had a chance of making the game, but he didn’t feel great afterwards, so we made the call to leave him out then.”

As for new boy Keven Appo, who made the initial 21-man squad but not the matchday 18, Dunning said: “He’s trained three times since he got here, but it’s still going to take a bit of acclimatising for him.

“He didn’t play here, and we’ll have a look at him this week to see where we are heading into the Widnes game on Sunday, and whether he might play then.”