Stephen Coulby last night insisted he had no regrets about his return to Odsal following the Bulls’ slide into administration.

Coulby rejoined the board of directors last month along with Rowland Agar after the club’s majority of shareholders forced Peter Hood and Andrew Bennett to step down.

It had been hoped that the change at boardroom level would lead to the Bulls attracting the funds required to save the club.

But despite the efforts of Coulby, Agar and former chairman Chris Caisley, who remains the club’s single largest shareholder with 26 per cent, it was not forthcoming and now liquidation looms unless a buyer can be found.

“This is a difficult day, a sad day, but I’ve no regrets about coming back,” said Coulby.

“The majority shareholders wanted something to change and a change was put in place, which has been well documented.

“For the last four or five weeks – it seems an eternity now – all efforts have been on trying to get the finance needed to move the club forward, not just in the short term but also the long term.

“Monies were there but the problem was that we needed a lot more to be there.

“Discussions took place at the 11th hour on Monday on the basis of bringing in short-term monies as part of the monies required to buy us more time.

“But understandably investors, particularly when they start hearing how much is owed to the taxman – and that figure just kept on getting worse – weren’t prepared to put monies in at this precise time.”

Coulby remains a director for the time being but administrator Brendan Guilfoyle will make all the key decisions.

“Brendan has intimated he wants an involvement from myself but I’ve got to have another discussion with him about that,” said Coulby.

“But Brendan is the administrator and he runs the business.”