BRADFORD Bulls' interim head coach Lee Greenwood felt that his side "owed York Knights one" in Sunday's Betfred Championship Play-off Eliminator at Odsal.

Having lost both of the sides' league matches this season - following up a 32-16 defeat at the LNER Community Stadium in February with a 20-10 home loss last month - the Bulls made it third time lucky with a 22-8 victory in front of the Viaplay Sports cameras.

The Knights found themselves with an 8-0 lead with half an hour played, but a quick-fire double from interchanges Fenton Rogers and Keven Appo turned the game on its head, setting the tone for the Bulls to blow away their opponents after the break.

Bradford will now travel to fancied Toulouse Olympique this weekend in the Semi Final, where they will hope to secure their place in the 'Million Pound Game' against either League Leaders' Shield winners Featherstone Rovers or London Broncos.

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Greenwood was delighted to finally beat the Knights, saying in his post-match press conference: "We owed York one generally, if we'd been playing them in the league or in a pre-season friendly.

"We'd not performed well enough in the two games against them, and we owed them a little bit.

"We didn't get some things right in that first half an hour, we let the officiating and York frustrate us a little bit and put us off our game, and then we lost our heads slightly which led to their try.

"After that, I thought that the bench made an outstanding impact and changed the game for us."

York's injury problems have been well-documented this season, with Andrew Henderson down to his side's final 17 fit and available players after losing Myles Harrison to a knee injury at Barrow Raiders and seeing Oli Pratt recalled by Wakefield Trinity.

Greenwood dismissed claims that his side had met the Knights at a good time, with Henderson making only three changes from the side that had won at Odsal last month, and just one from their 31-18 triumph in Cumbria the previous weekend.

"It was pretty much the team that we played a few weeks back," he admitted. "They've had injuries all season, but that team has won however many games in a row. 

"While they had to put [second-rower Danny] Kirmond into centre, they had one missing from last week, and it's pretty much the same team that's been beating everybody in front of them, and beating us.

"Whether it was a good time to play a team that had won 11 out of 12 and come from nowhere to finish sixth, I'm not sure. 

"But I think that it was us, we made them look fatigued and tired. Certainly in the last 10 minutes of the first half, they looked gone a bit, and pretty much throughout the second half."

York Press: Youngster Myles Harrison had been influential against the Bulls last month, but was absent after picking up a knee injury against Barrow last week.Youngster Myles Harrison had been influential against the Bulls last month, but was absent after picking up a knee injury against Barrow last week. (Image: Craig Hawkhead)

The Bulls' interim coach also praised the Knights' incredible run to the play-offs, feeling as though his side's ability to force York into straying from their effective style of play had been one of the contributing factors in their victory.

Despite having gone into half-time with a 100 per cent set completion rate and just two errors to their name, the Knights saw that percentage halved and made a further 12 mistakes in a second half in which they were completely dominated by their hosts.

Greenwood explained: "York have been building now for a while playing this type of rugby, and it's worked for them generally pretty much every single week.

“But I think after we just pushed that scoreline out by a couple, you saw York just try to do something different than what they’ve been doing over the last few months and it didn’t go for them.

“They went wide a bit more than what they had been doing, and our defence was good. Our edge defence was ready for them, and there were some decent forced errors from us.

"I don’t think that it was all York dropping it, there were some really good defensive stints. I can only think of Pauli Pauli from a scrum, getting the ball out over the top that wasn’t right on the hooter.

"Other than that, I thought that we were fairly comfortable."