St Helens 18-32 Bradford

MATCH FACTS St Helens 18 (6) Tries: Talau 2, Wellens Goals: Lyon 3 Bradford 32 (8) Tries: Vainikolo 2, Johnson 2, L Pryce, B Harris Goals: Deacon 4

Bradford produced a stunning comeback to defeat Saints and secure third place in the final Super League table.

The Bulls looked down and out when two tries from Willie Talau and a score for Paul Wellens gave the home side an 18-8 lead with under 20 minutes to go.

But Paul Johnson crossed and Lesley Vainikolo bundled his way over for his second try to make the score 18-16.

And Johnson added his second before Leon Pryce and Ben Harris touched down in the last few minutes.

The victory means that Bradford will have a home draw in the play-offs against the sixth-place team on Friday.

The Bulls go into the play-offs in fine form, having won the last eight games of the regular season.

Saints, who collected the minor championship trophy after the final whistle, were without five first-team players because of injury.

And despite coming back from going 8-0 down after Deacon's goal and Vainikolo's first try on 18 minutes, Saints made a host of errors and had no answer to Bradford's five-try blitz in the closing 13 minutes.

It was their first home defeat of the season and the first in the league under Daniel Anderson.

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St Helens coach Daniel Anderson:

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

"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.

"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."

Bradford coach Brian Noble:

"I thought the character was superb and in the end we looked like scoring from every play.

"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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St Helens: Wellens, Hardman, Lyon, Talau, Gardner, Hooper, Roby, Fozzard, Higham, P. Anderson, Graham, Bennett, Wilkin.
Replacements: Cunningham, Mason, Fa'asavalu, V Anderson.

Bradford: L Pryce, Johnson, B Harris, Hape, Vainikolo, I Harris, Deacon, Fielden, Henderson, Morley, Meyers, Peacock, Radford.
Replacements: Paul, Vagana, Lynch, Langley.

Referee: Ashley Klein (London).