Peter Hood refuses to press the panic button at Odsal.

The chairman today insisted he won’t bow to pressure and sack coach Steve McNamara after the Bulls’ worst-ever Super League start was compounded by a shocking Challenge Cup exit.

McNamara has come under fierce criticism after his bumbling side squandered a huge 26-0 lead against Catal-ans Dragons in Perpignan.

They embarrassingly ship-ped 40 second-half points to eventually fall 40-38 on Sunday in one of the competition’s biggest-ever collapses.

The debacle came just a week after they wasted a 16-point advantage to lose at Castleford, with nose-diving Bradford winning only once in seven games this year.

But Hood points to the positives as, since defeating Catalans in their Super League fixture last month, the first-half performances in the last two games have seen the Bulls produce some of the best rugby of McNamara’s three-year reign.

He said: “We played some very good football in both. We need to continue playing that football but turn it into results.

“Sacking the coach is not on the agenda. We’re not about to start panicking. It is uncomfortable and very tough being where we are right now.

“It’s tough being dumped out of the Challenge Cup, especially the way we were on Sunday, and I appreciate it’s tough not just for the players, the staff and the club but the fans as well. But we’ll come through it and we need to stick together.”

Hood continued: “I know we were thrashed at Wigan but apart from that it’s not a question of being humiliated every week.

“We drew with Hull KR, lost against Huddersfield by four points, lost by two at Cas and two again versus Catal-ans. We just need to turn those narrow defeats into wins.”

Hood did not travel to France so was due to meet McNamara face-to-face today to discuss the weekend’s events.

But he insisted: “I do that every week. It’s not a crisis meeting or special talks or anything like that. However, obviously there’s a need to sit down and talk as I want to understand a bit more about exactly what went wrong.”

The Bulls squad only arrived home in the early hours yesterday morning and have little time to prepare for the daunting visit of champions Leeds on Good Friday.

However, the Rhinos could be without prop Luke Burgess. He must appear before the RFL’s disciplinary panel tonight charged with a reckless high tackle in their own cup defeat against St Helens.

Meanwhile, Catalans’ Clint Greenshields is also up for a careless tackle on Bulls’ Dave Halley which resulted in a penalty try on Sunday.