JIMMY Lowes refused to press the panic button after the Bulls were humiliated by Featherstone.

Rovers romped to a 37-18 victory as Lowes’ men were outclassed by their part-time visitors at Odsal.

The result ended the Bulls’ 17-match winning streak but Lowes insisted he would not replace his underperforming players with new ones.

The head coach said: “We were terrible and I attribute that to Featherstone playing with a lot more energy than us and handing them cheap ball, easy metres and way too many penalties.

“We didn’t have the legs or the skill to get back into the game – there are no excuses at all.

“You need to start games like these well and we failed to do that, which gifted them field position.”

As the Bulls seek to make a massive improvement ahead of the all-important Super Eights, Lowes said he had no plans to shake up his squad.

He added: “Does one bad performance make a bad team?

“Of course we’re looking to go up but I still believe in the players and what we can do out there.

“We’re not, all of a sudden, a terrible team – we just had a very poor day at the office.

“I’m not going to panic and buy for the sake of buying. They have got to be the right people to be brought in here, so no, I’m not going to panic.

“One or two people look like they’re panicking but we’re not going to do that.

“The players have shown the character of the team, going right back to Batley away, to get back into the game.

“We failed to do that tonight because we gave Featherstone way too much and fair play to them. They had spells when they played with great energy.”

After the Bulls’ unbeaten home record was ended in such emphatic fashion, Lowes was asked whether he doubted his team’s ability to challenge for promotion.

He replied: “No. We’ve had some scrappy wins, admittedly so, but there is a lot of character in that team and some good rugby as well.

“We’ve had a tough six weeks and not played overly well, but I still believe we can challenge.

“Like I said, I’m not going to panic and buy for the sake of buying because we got our backsides kicked tonight.”