MARK DUNNING admitted after the Bulls’ fourth straight defeat that the players’ confidence is as low as it has ever been in his time at the club.

On the back of a 30-4 Betfred Championship defeat at Barrow yesterday that is some statement from a committed Bulls employee who has been at Odsal for a decade.

After a display where few positives could be gleaned, with the defeat further rocking their slim play-off hopes, head coach Dunning admitted: “We are struggling at the moment.

“We are in a slump and are struggling to do the fundamentals right and earn our right to win games.

“It is something that me and the players urgently need to address if we are to save our season.

“We have just spoken in the dressing room together and we are agree that we need to stay tight and keep working hard to come through this difficult period.

“All have bad patches and the only way to come through a slump like this is to work our way through it, and let me tell you after looking at all the players in the dressing room everyone is fully committed to doing so.”

Dunning added: “Confidence is low. It is probably the lowest it has been at my time at the club.

“There has been a lot going on behind the scenes and when confidence is low people try and do things on their own and not working as a team and at times to day I thought we did that and tried to make things happen rather than sticking to the processes and structures that we put into place leading into this game.

“We let ourselves down coming up with silly errors and discipline but I must give credit to Barrow for capitalising on our errors and poor discipline, and the fact that they have just that just compounds that feeling even further.”

The only Bulls score came from left centre Kieran Gill from a Jordan Lilley kick that Ryan Millar did well to offload.

Barrow are now nine points ahead of the Bulls in the sixth and last play-off place with seven matches remaining.