Jamie Langley is confident the Bulls’ tough start will set them up well for the rest of the season.

The fixture computer has been harsh on Bradford, handing them clashes against each of the top five in their opening seven Super League games.

Friday’s 18-6 defeat against Hull FC proved particularly hard to take, although Langley is not about to make excuses for failure.

The form back-rower believes the Bulls will emerge stronger from their early test but knows the pressure is on to quickly produce results.

“The start was going to be tough but you’ve got to play the cards in front of you and start to put more points on the board,” said Langley.

“We’ve had a couple of close games and we feel that’s going to be good for us down the line.

“There’s a lot more in us and a lot of improvement still to make. We’ve yet to hit our straps and that’s got to be good for us. We’ve competed with some good teams and we’ll only get better.”

The Bulls were laid low by illness at Hull, sorely missing key playmaker Matt Orford, while a number of other players featured despite a lack of action in the build-up.

Langley himself had missed the previous week’s defeat at Warrington after falling sick and admits poor health had disrupted preparation.

“I managed to get back in training but I still wasn’t quite right because I wasn’t eating proper meals until the day before the game,” he said.

“We trained with no half backs, so you are going to find it difficult. Ox (Orford) tried to train the day before but he took a turn for the worse. It knocked him back a little bit and it was more serious than we thought.

“At one point Steve was going to put himself forward to play half back for us! "But we’re not going to use it as an excuse.

“Some games you lose, you’ve been beaten by the better side and you’ve under-performed, but some games, when you assess it after, it’s the fact you’ve not made that final pass or not taken your chances.”