BRADFORD BULLS 18 YORK KNIGHTS 20
NATHAN ATKINSON, Bartercard Odsal, Sunday
AUSTRALIAN star Scott Galeano was the hero for York as his brace of tries bookended a narrow win.
With Bradford holding an 18-16 lead with just minutes to go, the winger stormed over wide out to claim the points for the visitors.
It was Galeano who had opened the scoring after just five minutes, when Jordan Thompson found a way through the Bulls defence before feeding Connor Bailey on his inside.
Although James Meadows made a great tackle to halt the charge, York stayed calm and worked it wide to the left, where the final cut-out pass took Jayden Okunbor out of the equation, allowing Galeano to stroll over. Liam Harris landed an excellent touchline conversion.
Both sides then had chances to score, with Bradford coming to life a little more when Tom Holmes replaced Mitch Souter, who left the field with a shoulder injury.
It was Holmes’ first game in over three months, and in the reshuffle, Jordan Lilley went to hooker, with Meadows and Joe Keyes sharing the halfback duties.
When Holmes forced a handling error from the Knights, the hosts took full advantage, and on the last tackle, on-loan St Helens centre Konrad Hurrell tipped it on brilliantly for Guy Armitage to squeeze over in the left corner. Lilley’s conversion attempt hit a post.
Keyes produced a brilliant 40/20 early in the second half, and although Waqa Blake wasted one early chance after some great hands from left to right, Bradford were soon on the board.
Ebon Scurr sent Holmes through a gap and the fullback skated to just inside ten metres, only to be thwarted by a fine Ata Hingano tackle.
But Bradford went again, Meadows clearing his man with a well-judged kick for Armitage, who let the dropping ball hit his foot before diving on it to score.
Lilley blasted the conversion between the posts to put his side in front for the first time, then added a penalty-goal for 12-6.
From the restart, Ronan Michael put a foot in touch and Bradford never recovered, with York hitting back from the drop-out as Hingano crossed from close range.
Harris missed the conversion but was on target minutes later when Lilley let a ball run through his hands, allowing Toa Mata’afa to race onto it under the posts.
With 13 minutes to go, Bradford regained the lead thanks to Keyes, whose teasing kick was claimed by Blake, who soared through the air to catch it and flopped over between the posts.
Lilley’s simple conversion restored Bradford’s advantage, but they couldn’t see it out and when Holmes made a brilliant tackle on Harris, he was ruled to have knocked on in doing so.
Quick hands from the York scrum enabled Galeano to burn past Okunbor for the winner and consign Bradford to their first home defeat in three months.
GAMESTAR: York stand-off Ata Hingano was lively and dangerous throughout.
GAMEBREAKER: A tight contest was not settled until Scott Galeano crossed with three minutes left.
MATCHFACTS
BULLS
6 James Meadows
27 Jayden Okunbor
3 Waqa Blake
28 Konrad Hurrell
5 Guy Armitage
9 Jordan Lilley
7 Joe Keyes
8 Michael Lawrence
14 Mitch Souter
15 Logan Bayliss-Brow
11 Zac Fulton
12 Matty Gee
18 Sam Hallas
Subs (all used)
1 Tom Holmes
10 Ebon Scurr
21 Emmanuel Waine
20 Ronan Michael
Tries: Armitage (28, 47), Blake (67)
Goals: Lilley 3/4
KNIGHTS
36 Toa Mata’afa
35 Scott Galeano
20 Oli Field
3 Kieran Buchanan
2 Joe Brown
6 Ata Hingano
7 Liam Harris
21 Conor Fitzsimmons
9 Paul McShane
8 Jack Martin
11 Jesse Dee
12 Connor Bailey
13 Jordan Thompson
Subs (all used)
10 Brenden Santi
19 Sam Cook
31 Kieran Hudson
34 Ben Jones-Bishop
Tries: Galeano (5, 77), Hingano (56), Mata’afa (59)
Goals: Harris 2/4
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 4-6; 10-6, 12-6, 12-10, 12-16, 18-16, 18-20
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Bulls: Tom Holmes; Knights: Ata Hingano
Penalty count: 8-6
Half-time: 4-6
Referee: James Vella
Attendance: 3,603