JOE Lumb says Bulls go into their crunch Championship clash at home to struggling Dewsbury high on confidence despite injuries continuing to hamper the squad.

James Mendeika, James Bentley and Ross Peltier have been ruled out of Sunday’s game, while Leon Pryce has been suffering from illness.

The captain will have a late fitness test along with Oscar Thomas and Jon Magrin, who are also battling knocks.

It means Bulls will not be at full strength for a game already being billed as ‘must-win’ against a Rams team who lost their first five matches.

But Lumb took big positives from the way a makeshift young side pushed Featherstone all the way in the Challenge Cup defeat last time out.

He said: “We take massive confidence from that. We had our young lads playing and lads carrying knocks against a Featherstone team that, as far as I am aware, was pretty much a full-strength team. Maybe one or two were missing but there were a lot of good names out there.

“You can only take belief from that performance. We had a disjointed team but we ran them really close.”

Two more games against teams at the bottom end of the table follow Sunday’s match, against Oldham away and Sheffield at home.

The fixtures offer a great chance to knock off the remaining six-point penalty before Easter but Lumb said: “We’ll take each game as it comes – performances are getting better. If we take care of stuff in training, games will take care of themselves and the points will come.”

l Bulls under-16 player Matthew Laird was released from hospital after X-rays revealed no serious damage following an injury against Wakefield Trinity.

The match at Dudley Hill was abandoned after the youngster suffered severe concussion following a tackle.