THE Bulls head into another home game later today with the message: Don’t be scared by Odsal.

They have won only once in six attempts at their own ground this season – losing the last four.

Newcastle are the next Championship visitors for a teatime kick-off as Mark Dunning plots an end to a wretched home run.

“There’s a lot been said about Odsal and I’ve had my two penn'orth previously,” he said. “What we’re hoping to do is finally put that to bed and entertain our passionate fans.

“But we’re well aware the Newcastle team that are coming down have particularly good players and they’ll be trying to ambush us as well.

“There is a little bit of anxiety and fear. What we’re trying to do is create an environment where the guys can express themselves without that and can just go out and play.

“Yes, errors will be made as they were last weekend. But in large parts of that game, we dug in and defended the errors – it was the one or two occasions we didn’t that cost us in the end.

“What I’m trying to get over to the players is to not make it where we’re fearful of playing at Odsal.

“We want to embrace the challenge and put on a performance for our loyal spectators.”

The 20-6 loss to York followed defeats to Featherstone, Halifax, Barrow and Sheffield. The Bulls’ only Odsal win was by a point against Batley at the beginning of March.

Interim head coach Dunning revealed the players have been training on the pitch as much as possible to adjust to the narrowest constraints in the league.

“I know the pitch is a little bit tighter than it normally is. But Odsal has always been that really intrusive ground where everyone is on top of each other and it’s a really good atmosphere.

“We’re training there as much as we can to eradicate the minor issues we’ve got at the moment and hopefully we can do that.

“It’s muscle memory. The more you do it, the more it becomes second nature.

“Whenever we’re playing at home, we try to get on the pitch as much as possible.

“There’s other use of the pitch as well and the maintenance. But when we’re allowed to be on the pitch, we do.

“We’re also trying our best to mark out the pitch at Tong to the right dimensions of Odsal so we can get somewhere near.

“The flipside of that is when we’re playing away, we’ve got to adjust quickly. But we manage that the best we can.”

Both sides side three points off the play-offs after 11 games with the Bulls narrowly above Newcastle on points difference in a congested table.

Dunning said: “I personally think it’s one of the best Championships we’ve seen for a very long time.

“Take the top two away who are well above everybody else and anybody on their day can beat anyone. That’s got to be good for the game and for spectators.

“We’re well aware of what Newcastle’s threats are and what they are going to possess.

“If we can go into the weekend off for the Challenge Cup on the back of a good performance and good victory then it will set us up to attack two really tough away games at Widnes and Featherstone in a four-day period.”