BRADFORD Bulls put on a proud display but fell to a 16-8 defeat at home to league leaders Featherstone Rovers this afternoon.

In recent times, victories against today’s opposition have come few and far between, with Bulls’ last win coming almost five years ago.

In front of a packed and sunny Odsal, the hosts got about the league leaders early on and started extremely brightly.

Kieran Gill nearly broke through Featherstone’s defensive line after only a couple of minutes on the clock, however Bradford’s top try scorer was brought down just as the space began to open up.

For the following ten minutes the focus of the game switched towards the referee, who was doing his best to make enemies with the home faithful.

Lee Gaskell was evidently hit with two late and high tackles, but nothing was awarded in Bradford’s favour; instead the visitors would be given a soft penalty a few plays later. 

And despite defending valiantly to see out Featherstone’s opening three sets, the visitors did find their way over on minute 13 for a converted try.

The ball was worked towards the left on the 6th tackle and there was Brad Day to crash over from close range. Mark Kheirallah added the extras to put the league leaders 6-0 in front. 

Gaskell then showed some defensive class to keep out Featherstone, with a couple of try-saving challenges being met by an almighty roar from the home crowd.

The decibel levels went up a notch when stand-in right winger Jayden Myers pounced in the corner.

Gaskell played a delightful chipped kick over the Featherstone defence and the bounce fell kindly for Myers, who plucked the ball out of the air to go over for the hosts. Lilley’s kick fell short as the hosts reduced the scores to 6-4.

Bulls held on for the remainder of the first half and went into the interval with the points well and truly up for grabs.

The visitors came out the blocks firing in the second half and so nearly added to their narrow lead.

A break through the centre of the field saw Featherstone work a two on one situation, but Tom Holmes read the attack expertly and executed a brilliant dump tackle on the onrushing Fev man.

After an extended period of Bradford pressure, they would soon level the try count through Brad England.

From dummy-half, Lilley fired a quick pass into England who darted over from right centre. Lilley missed the conversion to keep the scores at 10-8 to the visitors.

The hosts then nearly found the lead for the first time in the contest, as Arundel looked to have grounded the ball over the visitors’ line, however the referee adjudged the Bradford man as being held up.

With the sun still shining brightly on the Odsal turf, Featherstone burst through the host’s defensive line to seemingly put the game to bed.

Leilua raced clear, before finding the supporting Aekins who touched down just to the right of the posts.

Kheirallah converted to extend the lead to 16-8.

From then on, the away side slowed the game down at every opportunity and they held on to claim the two points.

Greenwood and Noble will have been pleased with their side’s performance, as the Bulls battled strongly against the best side in the division in front of a strong crowd of 4,567.

Bradford return to action next Sunday when they host the York Knights, with the game getting underway at 3pm.