MATT Diskin admitted the Bulls' survival hopes were effectively over after they were thumped 44-18 at home by Hull KR last night.

The club captain reluctantly took caretaker charge in the first game since Francis Cummins and Lee St Hilaire were sacked on Monday.

With only ten games remaining, the Bulls have just two points to their name and Diskin said the lack of depth in the squad had finally taken its toll on the players.

After a 13th Super League defeat of the season, Diskin said: "Where does this result leave us? In a bad place.

"Mathematically it is still achievable but we're relying on other people not performing now; Wakefield in particular.

"We'll try our damndest every week as we do and hope for the best – but we are hoping at this stage.

"The overall squad depth is lacking a lot because we haven't got competition for places and the players are mentally fatigued.

"There's no real accountability for their places in the team and if you don't play well then you're going to play next week because we've got no strength in depth.

"There is nobody kept on their toes and that's the dilemma I have next week if I'm still in charge.

"That's the dilemma the new coach will have because there is no depth there to freshen people up mentally.

"Antonio Kaufusi was the type of player we needed in the front row but unfortunately we only managed to get him for four weeks."

Diskin reiterated his support for Cummins and St Hilaire and said head of youth Richard Tunningley and equipment manager Leigh Beattie had assisted him in preparing the team.

He said: "I had great support from Leigh Beattie and Richard Tunningley. Steve Ferres was also around the place offering support if needed but it wasn't needed.

"We trained really well and tapped in to the quality resources already put in place by Francis and Lee.

"If I'm asked to do it again then yes, I will. I don't really have a choice because that's the position we are in."

Brett Kearney will return for next week's trip to Warrington and it remains to be seen if the Bulls will appoint a successor to Cummins before then.

Jimmy Lowes and John Kear have made their interest known and Glenn Morrison is also in the running.

Diskin said: "I know they want to make a decision as quickly as possible but I also know they want to make the right choice.

"I'm not hiding the fact I was reluctant to do it because I was stepping in on the back of two quality people who we had there.

"They held this team together through all the adversity we've had for the last couple of years.

"But I enjoyed it and if you're going to do it then you do it properly.

"I spent many hours with the preparation, as my wife will vouch for as she’s not seen me all week.

"We’ve got a problem transferring it into a game. We played some decent rugby early on but every time we got ourselves in a decent position we made errors that shouldn’t made at this level.

"That’s the sort of thing you see on a Sunday morning when the kids are playing but we’re making them week in week out.

"It shows these guys are mentally fatigued – they’re like the bullied kid at school."