BRADFORD Bulls coach Eamon O’Carroll has revealed that he would rather his team under-performed in a Betfred Challenge Cup tie than this Sunday’s AB Sundecks 1895 Cup quarter-final at home to Dec Patton’s Swinton Lions.

O’Carroll, reflecting on last weekend’s 26-12 defeat at home to Widnes Vikings, where the impact off the Bulls bench was disappointing, said: “We will work hard but it is about working smart. We have to take this as a lesson and I would rather it happen this week than next. We are not happy but this is where we are at. We will refocus for next week.”

He then admitted that he would rather the Bulls be in an arm wrestle every week, such as against Widnes, when they trailed 8-6 at half-time, than be coasting to a 30-point lead by the interval.

O’Carroll said: “At 8-6 down at half-time we want to be in tough games. We don’t want to be 30 points ahead at half-time and this was our first test against a side in the Championship who are going to compete this year, and we just needed to up our intensity and energy.”

He added: “Hopefully Lee Gaskell (who missed the Widnes game due to illness) will be OK for next weekend, but (hooker) Mitch (Souter, suspended for two matches as is injured prop Eribe Doro) will be a big loss. We seem to be losing two at the minute and getting one back.

“I was still confident after Eribe was injured (after 20 minutes), or even if he wasn’t, that we would still get enough from the bench, but we didn’t, and I have told them that.

“Keven (Appo) came off the bench for his second stint and did a little bit better, but we made two early changes in the second half (Michael Lawrence and Sam Hallas) because I felt that we needed to, and that I something that I haven’t had to do with this group before.

“We have enough quality in our 17 to get the game-plan right and here we didn’t. Eribe is in a boot and on crutches and it is looking like he will out for longer than two weeks as he is sore. He is a tough kid is Eribe so I would imagine that he has done something significant.

“Referee Ben Thaler has put that incident on report.”

Meanwhile, O’Carroll did not want to use Gaskell’s absence, which led to Jordan Lilley and Billy Jowitt playing at half-back, as a reason for the defeat.

He said: “Jordan and Billy had the week leading up to the game to get used to playing at half-back with each other and they also had the previous week’s game, so I am not using that as an excuse as there is quality there. We just didn’t control the ruck enough. We did for Kieran Gill’s try.

“I sensed a comeback when Billy scored to put us 14-12 down, and he did that through effort, he showed some energy and tried something and it came off and we had a seven-tackle set and then gave a penalty away, which was a bit of a killer. We missed our shape and support.”

O’Carroll then confirmed that the Bulls are looking to add to their squad.

He said: “We are constantly looking to bring people in. The Super League season has only just started and we are also looking overseas. It is not as easy as we would like, but if the right person comes up then we are certainly in a position to do so.”