New Bradford Bulls boss Rohan Smith believes Workington Town can upset some of the league's big guns after running his side close.

Town narrowly lost out to the Bulls 29-22 in the dying minutes of their Championship encounter.

Smith was impressed with what he saw on Sunday and believes Workington have the ability to climb off the bottom of the table.

"I think they can climb up, based on what I've seen and on some of the previous matches I've seen on video," said Smith.

"They've been extremely competitive and play a good brand of rugby. They also have a very good coach there.

"I feel like they could definitely cause some teams some trouble and I'd be happy to see them cause some of those teams at the top some trouble."

Smith praised the Town pack for their efforts, especially Ryan Verlinden, who had probably his best game in a Workington shirt.

He added: "I thought Workington made a lot of really good tackles one-on-one, or just held on to keep us away from the try line.

"There's a lot of courage in the Championship. All the teams I have seen so far give their best and just keep going.

"The big fellas certainly gave us a bit of trouble there in the second half at various times and Verlinden gave us a bit of trouble as well.

"But I thought we held our line together pretty well for the most part, with a couple of defensive reads on the end of the line that we can work on."

And he also gave mention to wily half-back Jarrod Sammut, who nipped in for two tries on the day.

"I've tracked Jarrod's career for a long time and he's caused pretty much every team he's ever played against trouble.

"He got us a couple of times today but I thought we did a lot of good stuff against his attacking play as well."

Town do not have any respite from the Championship's full-time big guns as this Sunday they head to Leigh to take on the table-toppers.