Bradford v London match updates

London were the better team throughout the first half against Bradford and pressed the Bulls back in their 40 metre area for long stages forcing them to repeatedly kick wind-assisted long punts which were well fielded by the back three of Mataitonga, O'Callaghan and Duckworth.

The only clean break made in the first 20 minutes was when Bradford raced clear past O'Callaghan, who then offloaded to Gale and it was a travesty that we were behind with Mataitonga pulling up injured rubbing salt in the wound. Farrar who switched to fullback played very well afterwards.

However with four forwards on the bench, we lacked any like-for-like replacement at halfback and things got worse when Caton-Brown was carried off with concussion plus Duckworth went off with a Hamstring pull, for we then had three backs injured for the rest of the game, as well as Captain Cook who also went off with concussion so we had four out in the first half.

We were already celebrating on the terraces when Scott Moore's kick through evaded the fullback and he regathered to race unopposed to the line but it is believe he showboated and slipped inches from the line with Danny Addy somehow getting his hand under the ball to prevent a 12-12 halftime score.

It was worth noting that Bradford gained about five consecutive sets prior to their second try.

In the second half we began to look less physically dominant as our five Props tired with no replacements available and a bit of a lack of cohesion but we battled manfully, with Bradford's third try being a forward running in from only a couple of metres out following a knock-on within our 20.

When Cunningham took the ball from a bounce off Kearney and went over to make it 18-12 it was even more frustrating that Moore had missed.

Only in the last 5 minutes was the game decided with Gale's drop goal and a try with 3 or 4 minutes left giving Bradford an undeserved flattering margin in a game that was close throughout until the 77th minute.

A huge improvement again on last week with many more metres made, a more expansive game, solid tackling and very robust performance with the debutants looked really very good.

So far we have not scored more than three tries in a game, and I would suggest that in the main the tries we have got have been more to do with individual opportunism versus a line-breaking pass with a run-in, so we could do with focusing upon building combinations in the next week or so.

Bradford have played already their two weakest opponents in us and Wakefield and they aren't going to see either again till the second half of the season, so I would suggest they will struggle to get to zero points, as I can't see them causing a great deal of damage to anyone given where they are.

There is a great deal of frustration from the home support who appeared to moronically shout for penalties, forward passes and everything else for the entire game; I do not see them being supportive should they go behind that is for sure.

Whilst Wakefield look a bit stronger than Bradford but they have lost to them and will be desperate for points but again I don't see them getting too many given their 5 best players from last season have all gone.

The Wakefield home game looks absolutely massive for us now, I genuinely believe a win will take us above the bottom two and I can see us beating them, that is for sure.

I would estimate we could stay up with only about eight wins from the remaining twenty four, especially if we win the proverbial "four pointers" against these two and I see no reason we can't take a good share of points from the three Catalans game plus Cas, Hull KR and the home games against Widnes and Hull FC.