GEORGE Flanagan has admitted that the Bulls players are “absolutely devastated” at where they are in the Championship table.

In an upside-down season, Bradford are ninth, having won only four games at Odsal - against Batley, Newcastle, Dewsbury and Workington - while they have triumphed seven times away.

The latest home defeat for Mark Dunning’s men was by 12-4 against Whitehaven on Sunday.

Bulls end their season with games at Halifax and Batley, before hosting Widnes on the final day.

The statistics so far are damning, and Flanagan admitted: “It has been a season of disappointment rather than failure.

“Mark is an exceptional young coach coming through and I am chuffed to bits that he has got the job and we need to work hard for him over these last three games.

“It doesn’t get much tougher than Halifax away and Batley away in the Championship and we need to dust ourselves down this week, put in a good week’s training and see where it takes us.

“The play-offs are out of the equation and now it is about pride - playing for the club, playing for the badge, playing for the city of Bradford, which I do every week.”

Reasons given for the Haven setback were the narrowness of the Odsal pitch - a puzzle that they must solve next season if they want to do anything - and the makeshift half-back pairing of Sam Hallas and teenager Myles Lawford, while the Bulls also had an astonishing seven tries chalked off, three of which should probably have stood.

Flanagan - if you cut him in half he would bleed Bradford - did not sense the forthcoming disappointment last weekend.

He said: “It had been a couple of good weeks where we performed to a decent standard and really worked hard together.

“The effort is always there but we need to realise that when people come to Odsal we need to make it a difficult place to come, and at the moment we are not.

“We can make a million excuses but the size of the pitch is the same for both teams.

“When we came out of the changing rooms I sensed we were really up for it, the warm-up was really good, we had had a decent week’s training but we need to create our own atmosphere.

“It is a bit of a quiet place to play at, and yes you can say we have makeshift halves and had tries disallowed but they are excuses and we need to make sure that we are switched on.

“We have people playing out of position, but we need to be better.”

Flanagan added: “We are absolutely devastated with our league position.

“This team is better than the table suggests but we are where we are and we have a tough few weeks left.

“I have played in this division for a long time and let me tell you it is a tough division. Anyone can beat anyone on their day but we need to do a lot better with our home advantage.”