ANTHONY MURRAY has "no complaints" after North Wales Crusaders were beaten 50-12 by League One title favourites Bradford Bulls.

A disjointed first-half performance left Crusaders trailing 28-0 at the break, but the Wrexham-based outfit upped their game after the interval and gave the full-time hosts a run for their money.

Tries from Dale Bloomfield and Simon Atherton, both of which were converted by Kenny Baker, gave the Crusaders' faithful something to cheer about, and Murray reasons to be optimistic.

"I've no complaints, especially from a second-half perspective," said Murray. "I thought in the first-half we maybe showed a little bit too much respect to them and they showed their quality.

"Every time a defender got caught up in a tackle and didn't reload well they just caught us in that space and we didn't adapt to it and didn't defend it. We spoke about that in the first-half and in the second-half we corrected it.

"We scored a couple of nice tries and we had a fantastic try, which would have been the try of the afternoon, disallowed, which is a bit frustrating and disappointing.

"Overall, you've got to be realistic when you come to Bradford. They are a full-time outfit coached by one of the best coaches in rugby league and for large parts we made a fist of it.

"We could have folded after that first-half, but we didn't, we came back and showed what we are about with some good character and good commitment."

Murray feels that Crusaders were undone by the occasion in the 40 minutes at the famous Odsal Stadium.

He continued: "I think we got a little bit overawed with the big pitch and the stadium. It sounds a little bit silly, but we did, we defended the width of it instead of keeping nice and tight, giving them the outside and then pushing off and cutting the space down from the inside.

"They are a full-time team, they've got all week to pick our team to bits and they certainly did that in the first-half, but in the second-half "I've got no complaints, I'm quite pleased and proud of the players, to be fair."

While Murray was pleased with his side's second-half showing as a whole, he singled out Baker for special praise.

Asked about the loose-forward, Murray said: "I watched Kenny Baker play for 30 minutes for Rose Bridge and that's all I needed, I signed him straightaway and he's never looked back.

"I'm so pleased he's playing well in this competition and Kenny Baker could play a lot higher, I just hope we can keep hold of him."