Gaskell's late mistake gifts undeserved win to Bradford

Warrington 20 Bradford 24

A moment of pure horror for Warrington's young winger Dean Gaskell saw Bradford poach a last-minute victory at Wilderspool yesterday from a match which the home side had been so close to winning.

The Wolves were in the lead until three minutes from time when Mike Forshaw forced his way through some leg-weary defence to score in the corner. Paul Deacon put over the difficult conversion, but that still left Warrington with a draw, which was the least they deserved, yet even that was snatched away.

In the final few seconds, Deacon kicked for touch and Gaskell, who had performed admirably all afternoon, scrambled back to prevent a 40-20 which would have given the Bulls possession from the scrum.

He managed that, but only at the expense of leaving the ball still in play and bobbling inches from the dead-ball line, where Scott Naylor reached it to celebrate his 250th first-team game with one of his most bizarre tries.

"We called for a 40-20, but for it to work out like that was freakish," admitted the Bradford coach, Brian Noble. "If you were a neutral, you'd probably think that Warrington deserved the point, but you have to play for the full 80 minutes."

Warrington's Paul Cullen refused to feel sorry for himself or his side. "We got what we deserved from that game," he said. "We put too much ball on the ground and that's what cost us the game."

Nor would he blame the unfortunate Gaskell. "He's had a great game and he's no more responsible for the result than everyone who put the ball on the floor," he said.

Warrington did remarkably well to make the running after losing their influential captain, Lee Briers, with a back spasm in the warm-up. That caused a wholesale reshuffle, but the Wolves shrugged that off to produce an excellent first-half performance.

They took the lead through Graham Appo's penalty and, after Daniel Gartner had scored for the Bulls from Deacon's kick, they dominated the rest of the first 40 minutes.

Rob Smythe's try after fine work from Brent Grose and Darren Burns, brought them level, before Appo's try, from a Nathan Wood break, plus two Appo goals put them eight points clear at the break.

Bradford had been a long way short of their best, but their inevitable backlash saw them bring the scores level once more with a nimble-footed try from Robbie Paul and two goals from Deacon.

That was a test of Warrington's resolve in sweltering conditions, but after Lee Gilmour had knocked on, incisive passing from Mark Gleeson and Jon Clarke saw Grose muscle his way over the line.

Appo's goal made it a lead of six points and Warrington had chances to clinch it, notably when Paul Noone raced through the middle but could not send Clarke clear. Appo also failed with two drop goal attempts that Briers might have been expected to land before Bradford provided the sting in the tail.

"It was a tremendous learning experience," said Cullen, which is another way of saying that it was unspeakably cruel.

Warrington: Appo; Smyth, Grose, Noone, Gaskell; Clarke, N Wood; `, Gleeson, Hilton, P Wood, Wainwright, Burns. Substitutes: Hulse, Guisset, Sturm, Stevens.

Bradford: Paul; Vaikona, Naylor, Hape, Pratt; Pryce, Deacon; Vagana, Smith, Parker, Gartner, Peacock, Forshaw. Substitutes: Gilmour, Radford, Anderson, Moore.

Referee: R Smith (Castleford).