A quick look at my note pad says Bradford 7-9 Castleford.

Just back home having watched a great game.

Agree with most of what people have mentioned already. For me another good thing (maybe not today but for the rest of the season) was we won despite bombing 3-4 good scoring oportunities. If we can start finishing those moves off then we can challenge most teams. Game could have been over at half time.

I'm pleased with how Herbert is working out, maybe his kicking wasn't the best today but he's a big scrum half and was putting himself about in defence. Wasn't far off some clean breaks and hopefully will get sharper. I think his distribution was better than some are giving him credit for. For him and Briggs, more than any of the other new guys, its going to take time for them to get up to speed.

Good to see Lynch shouting at people after the first try, seemed to have an effect as we tightened the defence up after that.

The impact of two first teamers coming back was obvious. Langley was a machine as usual and L'Estrange was awesome off the bench. Got 3 more probable first team players to come back, should only get better. Who to play where though!

Lastly, I was in the Coral stand today and it was noticable how many people stayed back behind the tunnel to clap the team off. Everybody was commenting on it after the game. Cheered me up no end so I'm sure it must have had an effect on the team. Good skills Bulls fans

Good result which showed a lot of character, we were far better defensively and more composed when under pressure, and the good crowd added a lot to the atmosphere.

One thing I don't get is the criticism of Herbert, I thought a lot of the good things we did today flowed from him, he's getting up to speed bit by bit and I think he'll make a very good addition when he clicks in a more settled half-back partnership. Those who criticise his kicking miss the fact that for the most part he was kicking tactically and finding the ground, even in the last ten mins when under pressure on his own 30/40m line. The kicks might not have been long but they found the ground and enabled our forwards to get up and close the space, much rather that than have a fullback/winger receive it on the full and have metres to get up to speed. He was also visibly organising things and directing the forwards and when working set moves his passes were fine, he can also defend and after dropping the ball from a restart worked hard over the next two sets before putting in a hit that got us the ball back. How anyone can talk of dropping him, just as he's starting to get used to the team and the english game is beyond me.

Other notables - Platt - after all the abuse he took has now demonstrated over and over again why the club were right to have faith in him. The Heath/Diskin combo could really bare fruit, looked very promising today. Ah van - his work rate for a winger was excellent, and when the forwards were tiring he was willing time and time again to run the ball in, also proved decent under the high ball today. Koppy did a good stint, Scruton was back to his best and having Langley back really stiffens our defense. So all in all, good progress, i think with Briggs back and kearney playing fullback full time we have a decent looking squad if we can begin to gain some consistency and composure and use this as a confidence builder.

Excellent effort today, well done to all the players. A good shift in the forwards from all, especially Scruton and Elima. I thought L'Estrange really made a difference when he came on, adding some pace to the play the ball and his enthusiamsm seemed to lift the players. Big improvement from Sykes, some good hits and direct running from Platt, and a fantastic effort at stand off and full back from Kearney.

I think this was an important win, it showed me, and maybe others, that we are really a different proposition to last year. Last years team would have folded in those last 10 min, I'm sure. This team today didn't fold. It might not win trophies this team, but we should have more good days than bad, which is a start.

This game reminded me why I love rugby league, what a nailbiter, great support from the fans, great scenes at the end with practically everyone staying to cheer the team off. Still too many errors, poor last tackle options etc., but what really stood out was how much the players wanted the win. Not the best ever game, but a great day to be there.

big improvement from last week. L'estrange looked like he'd never been injured and really sparked us to life when he came on. sykes was much better too. big call for potter next week whether royston retains spot or sykes comes in. Imo beither did much wrong today. hopefully briggs to come in next week to give us a bit more of a kicking game.

Onwards and upwards.

With hindsight I think Potter came up with the better game plan. He must have noticed Cas' 2 full length tries last week from broken play so kept it obsessively tight in the middle. Cas got sucked into the same thing, or just give the ball to Chase & wait for him to do something. Cas couldn't control Bulls round the ruck but not once do I remember them setting up & whipping the ball out wide to expose Ah Van or Ainscough. Sticking with Ferres as left centre was also an error, as a centre he's a decent second row.

Nice to see a couple of ex-Dons boys Royston and Briggs get a shot at SL. In Shad's case it's about time and Briggs is certainly a young lad with a big future if he can stay injury-free, just hope it's not simply 5 minutes of fame.

Well, this weeks working week has started all the brighter after this weekends results. Working in Leeds has become a real pain over the last few years seeing the Rhinos shirts all around the town centre and the smug faces that accompany them.

There appears to be a little light at the end of the dark tunnel - and if you were where I was on Friday evening, the time is twenty five to the hour (you'll know what I mean).

In regards to the actual performance yesterday, I felt we kept the ball tighter then we have in other games with the wingers not getting a real opportunity to run with the ball other than when returning kicks or scooting from dummy half in our own twenty. Ah Van made some particularly good drives and had be thinking he has similar attributes and style to a certain Tevita Vaikona. His appearance probably helps this comparison!

Platt was immense towards the end with some great yards and tough defence when we needed it most. If he continues in this vein Macca will have to consider him to at least join the England training squad.

Kearney was everywhere, as appears to be the norm now. He can't be expected to do this all season though so I feel Briggs does have to come back into the line up to help with field kicking and general attacking options.

Sykes stuck 2 fingers up to everyone who has slated him yesterday with his defensive performance (then had to take them back down again after his pass into touch when Ah Van was partly to blame), especially when it looked from we were that he should have just gone for the line himself. A great effort from the lad though considering he will know he's this years scapegoat for many of the keyboard warriors.

Herbert took a bit of a bang to the head, his kicking wasn't great, but his pass to Whitehead in the build up to Scruton's first try was a beauty.

Scruton had his best game of the season without doubt. A few great hits and two tries to boot. His second try was particularly important as it did give us the cushion we needed.

Whitehead seemed to rein the mistakes in (still one or two in there) but a steadier performance which is needed at present.

L'Estrange was very lively and caused Cas loads of problems.

Great to have some atmosphere in the ground at the end too. It's felt like a lifetime since the whole terrace stayed until every player left the field to applaud them off. I wonder what Andy Lynch will say about the fans this week

Well done. You won the game by making more yards up the middle. Simple as.

Just one question though, how small are your in goal areas?! There isn't a chance to put in an attacking kick close to the line because the margin for error is so small. I used to love Bradford with the raised corners and the trys scored from the little kick through. Looks like those days are gone. It was all a bit boring at times.

Er, we still have the same depth goal areas and the same raised corners that we have had for years. The area is a decent size, it's ludicrous to suggest they're "small".

You want small goal areas, make us move to VP, where the in goal area is, from memory, 4.7 inches

The raised corners are miles away now though. Before, the corner flag looked like it was on top of a mole hill. I think the regs state the in goal area is 6 - 11 meters. That is a huge range so it is possible that your in goal is just over half the size of some others. I haven't been to Bradford for a couple of years but it looked completely different to me.

Echo everyone's comments really. Fantastic day out and felt that the atmosphere was great (it seemed to pick up in our area after Fozzard took out Kearney with a late, dirty shot.

It is good to see our lads play some expansive rugby also, although at times they tried to be expansive when they needed to just up the jumper and gain field position. All in all very pleased and have to give credit to Sykes (I like many others have been critical of him as of late), the effort was there from him yesterday and defence was solid. Still think we have a bit of a way to go before the team reaches its fool potential but there are positive signs there. Big game at Saints this Friday and hope they keep progressing rather than regressing - COYB!

IIRC the last time we did some work on the pitch dimensions, c.2009, the plan was to extend the playing area to make it the full 100m which it now is, and I would guess that this meant the in goal ended up about 6 metres, which certainly rings a bell.

Odsal must be one of the largest playing surfaces in the League? Although it could be due to the fact that the spectators are miles away from the pitch. This does raise the argument of the Father Ted "close, far away" perspective.