Lee St Hilaire hit out at the Bulls’ underperformers following their tenth consecutive defeat.

Bradford’s acting head coach admitted the effort put in by several players was unacceptable during a 49-24 reversal at Hull KR.

The result put the tenth-placed side’s play-off hopes in serious jeopardy, with only four Super League games remaining, including trips to top-three mainstays Wigan and St Helens.

But St Hilaire is not ready to write the campaign off just yet.

Asked about his side’s chances of reaching the top eight, he said: “Very difficult. It’s not like we’re not going to try to get there and it’s something that the players are working towards.

“First we’re working to perform and then hopefully the win will come.

“There were some good performances out there, some not so good and some unacceptable ones.

“There’s a lot of edginess about our play right now. We’ve lost ten on the bounce and we’re having to field a lot of young players, which doesn’t help.”

St Hilaire refused, however, to let the Bulls’ rising stars take the blame for recent results.

The matchday 17 at Craven Park contained five players aged 20 or younger and rookie winger Vinny Finigan marked only his second senior appearance with a second try double.

“I think it is unfair for them to carry the can,” said St Hilaire. “They’ve been thrown in at the deep end, as I have.

“If you were to slide a couple of them into the top four sides you wouldn’t be worried about them.

“They’ve come into the side that’s lost ten on the bounce and they’re going to be good for the future.”

St Hilaire also paid tribute to Justin Morgan’s Rovers for the ruthless way in which they exploited the Bulls’ lack of experience, especially after playmaker Brett Kearney pulled out immediately before the game.

He said: “I’d like to pay a bit of respect to Justin Morgan’s side. They must have looked at our teamsheet and seen no halves.

“We had Danny Addy in there, a young lad who’s a 13 playing in the halves, and then he sees Beaver playing at the other half.

“The team’s going to lack some direction and, unfortunately, Brett Kearney’s foot wasn’t well enough to play.

“Credit goes to Justin Morgan and his side for sticking to their plan and executing what they did without getting blasé about it.”