'Some boys were already in the play-offs'

St Helens coach Daniel Anderson admitted his players may have had one eye on the play-offs as they surrendered their unbeaten home record to Bradford in the last match of the regular engage Super League season.

Saints conceded five tries in the last 13 minutes at Knowsley Road to go down 32-18 to the Bulls, whose eighth straight victory enabled them to clinch a third-place finish and the chance of two home ties in the Grand Final Series - and they will have home advantage against defending champions Leeds in the qualifying semi-final in a fortnight's time.

Anderson is confident that, even without injured trio Sean Long, Paul Sculthorpe and Darren Albert, they can regain the Super League crown.

He said: "I still think we're very committed and very determined. We were ordinary in execution.

The injuries shook us up a little bit last week and maybe some of the boys were thinking they were only one game away from the play-offs."

He added: "You can't help but think that maybe a couple of them were looking forward a week or two. We can definitely learn from it."

Two tries from centre Willie Talau put Saints 18-8 up after 61 minutes but makeshift winger Paul Johnson went over for two tries in five minutes and full-back Leon Pryce, who is moving to Knowsley Road next season, scorched 60 metres for a glorious solo try to clinch a memorable win for the Bulls.

"I thought the character was superb and in the end we looked like scoring from every play," said Bradford coach Brian Noble. "I thought we dominated a pretty good team.

"They've not been beaten here and we're highly delighted with the result. Our form is pretty good and the boys are talking about improving as well."

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