BRADFORD BULLS boss Brian Noble has urged his side to use a dip in results as a reminder that wins won’t come easily this season.
The Bartercard Odsal outfit were among the pre-season favourites for second-tier success.
And they lived up to that tag by toppling London Broncos at home and Hunslet away in their opening two league games as part of a four-match winning sequence in all competitions.
But then came Championship defeats by Toulouse Olympique in France and Barrow Raiders at Bartercard Odsal either side of Challenge Cup elimination at Salford.
Noble was left wondering whether successive away games against full-time teams had taken their toll, but also accepted that errors had proved costly against Barrow, who won 18-8.
“We’d had the hit-outs against Toulouse and Salford and maybe that took a bit of juice out of us,” he said ahead of the visit to Featherstone Rovers on Sunday.
“We have some good players to come back in and we are certainly not panicking.
“But it’s important that we look at ourselves because we started the season a whole lot better than how we have played more recently.
“The Championship is going to have a lot of games like this, and we have to be ready for that.”
Analysing the Barrow match, Noble told the Telegraph and Argus: “In tight games like that, it puts pressure on you and the pressure built all through the game.
“They benefited from a couple of bounces of the ball from kicks. We just couldn’t quite get there.
“It was always going to be nip and tuck. They were well controlled and well disciplined. From our point of view, there are things we can do a whole lot better.”
Meetings between Bradford and Featherstone will always bring memories of the late Peter Fox, the renowned coach who led both clubs to trophy success.
Fox died aged 85 in February 2019.
