EAMON O’Carroll was pleased by the composure shown by his Bradford Bulls as they survived a late scare to run out 36-28 victors against York Knights on Sunday.

The Bulls had opened the scoring at Odsal as Max Lehmann capitalised on some woeful edge defence, but York soon hit back, and had the game turned on its head by the quarter-hour after Brad Ward and Connor Bailey crashed over the whitewash.

However, that proved to be as good as it got for the Knights, who also had Nikau Williams sin-binned for a ‘clothesline’ tackle, with Jaden Myers adding his name to the scoresheet before a Kieran Gill double handed Bradford a deserved 18-10 half-time advantage.

John Davies fired the Bulls further in front four minutes after the restart, and they were cruising at 30-10 with 15 minutes remaining after Eribe Doro powered through some more shaky Knights defence.

But the visitors, to their credit, refused to lie down, with a Sam Cook double spearheading their comeback before Jimmy Keinhorst’s flying finish brought the scores back within two.

However, after Jordan Lilley’s rapid break, Zac Fulton ensured the points remained in West Yorkshire inside the final two minutes.

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Fans could have little complaint as to the final result, with York’s injury-hit squad having found their defence wanting.

And as a result of a frantic encounter, the Bulls’ boss believes his side were also far from their best.

“We had lots of effort, but you could just see us run out of steam, O’Carroll admitted. “It just felt like the game lacked any sort of rhythm today, and we’re at our best when we go set for set.

“It was really stop-start, and we just couldn’t get the start to it right, it was quite frantic at times.

“But to come through and win the game in the manner that we did was absolutely fantastic, and I’m so proud of them for that.”

And whilst undoubtedly pleased to see the Bulls keep the pressure on in the play-off picture, he admits that with the Knights in the ascendancy late on, they were made to work harder than they would have perhaps liked to hold on to the two points.

“York, to be fair to them, made us work hard for it,” conceded the Bulls’ boss.

“We didn’t have to put ourselves in that position. I thought we were poor defensively, for our standards.

“There was a lot of effort in it, but one works harder and the other under-works and it gives you massive problems.

“I think we lacked rhythm and connection today, but I’ve seen a very similar game with this group before, and we’ve been on the wrong side of it.

“But today, we found something to get the job done towards the end. It’s not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction."