BRADFORD Bulls suffered a major blow in their bid to cement a playoff spot after falling to a 14-10 defeat at home to Barrow Raiders on Monday evening.

The hosts knew that a victory would see them seize the upper hand in the playoff race following Halifax’s defeat at Sheffield on Friday night.

However, architects of their own downfall, Bradford put in a poor display and ultimately cost themselves a precious victory with an error stricken performance, which saw Jorge Taufua sent off for an alleged bite on Barrow’s captain.

Lee Greenwood’s side were buoyed by the return of Tom Holmes, Joe Arundel, Fenton Rogers and George Flanagan Snr, while there was a home debut for Jason Baitieri.

Despite the influx of returning stars, the Bulls couldn’t use it to their advantage.

It was nearly a nightmare start for Bradford following an immediate error from kick-off, with the ball being knocked on by the home side.

From there the ball was fed out wide to Ryan Shaw on the sixth tackle, but his try was eventually disallowed after an alleged forward pass in the buildup. 

The errors continued for the hosts; wracking up a total of five in the opening 25 minutes of the contest. 

They would soon prove costly after a couple of sloppy penalties were conceded by the Odsal side. Shaw was on hand to strike both penalties over the posts to give the visitors a 4-0 lead. 

Things got much worse for Greenwood’s men as Shaw converted another two penalties - the second coming after a game changing incident occurred. 

 Taufua allegedly bit Barrow’s captain and the referee had no choice but to send the Bradford man off the field, with the visitors cruising into an 8-0 lead at the break. 

After the break Fenton Rogers thought he’d got one back for the hosts after powering his way over the line, but the referee was once again on hand to bring disappointment to the Odsal faithful; this time disallowing the try for a knock on.

However, they weren’t to be denied on minute 54 when Jayden Myers touched down for his first senior try.

Lee Gaskell collected the ball on the right before playing a delicate grubber kick through the Barrow backline and there was young Myers to dart over for Bradford’s first of the evening. Patton missed the conversion.

Just as Greenwood’s side appeared to have a foothold in the game, back came the visitors and after working the ball brilliantly to the right, Shaw darted over in the corner to hammer home his team’s numerical advantage. 

With the score at 14-4 in favour of the visitors, Bulls did their best to set up a grandstand finish as Ben Blackmore found his way over in the corner after a perfect Gaskell lofted pass had found him. 

Patton added the extras to breathe some excitement into the air; 14-10 to Barrow.

Bradford huffed and puffed but more handling errors put an end to any glimmer of hope that the hosts had, and instead Shaw had the opportunity to put the visitors 16-10 up from the tee.

However, his penalty struck the upright and that was the final act of the fixture.

Bulls now face a tricky task when they travel to Batley Bulldogs on Sunday and they know a victory is a must on the road.