GEOFF Toovey insists the Bulls players and coaching staff will not be throwing in the towel – despite yet another painful defeat.

The Bradford head coach watched his basement battlers crash to their ninth consecutive Kingstone Press Championship reverse yesterday, losing 28-14 at Rochdale.

After flying out of the blocks and taking a 12-point lead in the opening stages, it was a familiar story for the beleaguered Bulls, with a host of individual errors again proving their downfall.

With just 12 games remaining this campaign, and Toovey's men perhaps needing to win as many as ten of those, relegation to League One is looking increasingly likely.

Despite that, the Australian is adamant that his squad will battle until the end, starting with next Sunday's home clash against Oldham.

Toovey told the T&A: "I thought this game was a must-win, so I'm pretty disappointed on all levels.

"After the first 20 minutes, we well and truly had it under control, but again some errors crept into our game and the confidence ebbed away again.

"We've got to turn it around and work twice as hard as other teams to try and break through that zero-point mark.

"It is getting very difficult, it's five minutes to midnight, and it's going to be a tough task ahead.

"But I know the coaching staff here and the players will be working extremely hard to turn things around."

Reflecting on the performance against a Rochdale team who recorded just their second victory in 14 outings, Toovey was typically honest.

He said: "There were way too many errors by our guys again. It's been like that for the last couple of months and always at vital times.

"Some pretty soft tries for them, just before half-time in particular, gave them a bit of a sniff and they came out revitalised after the break.

"I think it was totally down to individual mistakes and I don't believe our fitness was that bad at all.

"The try before half-time killed us – it was a one-on-one missed tackle, he just went straight through. That's the way it is in rugby league, you miss a tackle and pay the price.

"With their first try, they had five blokes and they just held him up over the line and he put the ball down, so the first two tries were just very soft and that has really hurt us."