EAMON O’Carroll fears Bulls are “killing themselves” in the Championship play-off hunt.

A third one-point loss on Sunday saw them miss out on the chance of pressuring second-placed Toulouse.

O’Carroll admits today’s team review of the Featherstone defeat will be a familiar story after similar late collapses against Batley and Widnes. They also blew a 16-point lead to only draw at Barrow earlier in the month.

“We’ve only got ourselves to blame,” said the Bulls head coach.

“It’s concerning because that’s just (down to) individual decisions, understanding where we are and what period of the game we are in.

“I’ve got some senior players out there and I trust them to be able to do that. But it’s not all on them.

“They can’t carry the ball every set for the players. They can’t make every tackle for the people around them – it’s a team game.

“We shoot ourselves in the foot again. We’re going to kill ourselves this year.

“We are going to be looking back and saying, ‘if only’. It’s three games we’ve lost by one point.”

The decisive penalty on Sunday was hotly-disputed with video indicating that Featherstone forward Wellington Albert lost the ball in the tackle.

But O’Carroll was angry with the tackle-five error which allowed the visitors back into scoring position.

“It’s very easy to give a penalty away, especially in the Championship. You have to be ultra-clean and recognise the scenario.

“That decision may have gone against us but we put ourselves in that situation. Again, that’s down to us.

“I’ve warned the group that it’s going to be the same conversation that I’ve had with you a number of times over the year.

“We get an opportunity in front of us and shoot ourselves in the foot.

“I said to them there’s a fair chance they’ll respond next week and then do it again. We’re going to have to change our mentality very quickly.

“It’s difficult because I think we hit a real high standard for large parts and then we’re completely the other side of the coin.

“Some individuals are going to have a difficult conversation with me.

“We want to do something special this year and every time we work extremely hard to put ourselves in a position, we just kill ourselves.”

READ MORE: How Bulls suffered another dose of one-point agony at Odsal

Jordan Lilley’s drop goal had edged the Bulls 21-20 ahead but the home side lost their heads in the closing stages after Jorge Taufua was sin-binned.

O’Carroll added: “I’m not sure what Jorge got sent off for but again that put us under pressure.

“That’s probably the worst five minutes I’ve ever been involved in.

“We get a yellow card, give a tackle five penalty away and then a ball steal for them to kick to win the game.

“I’m not going to sugar-coat it. You can’t be positive about completing at 51 per cent and losing the game in the last minute and a half due to your ill-discipline.

“I’ll have to find the answer. I don’t think it’s a collective as a group but individual.

“There are a lot of those individuals doing the same things and giving silly penalties away.

“We’ve got to take a long hard look at ourselves.”