Cummins raps pathetic’ defending at Devils

Desperately needing a win to boost their fight for survival, the West Yorkshire club were instead 24-0 down inside just 14 minute.

“It was a horror start,” admitted Cummins, whose side remain in one of the two relegation spots, eight points adrift of Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in the safety of 12th.

“Defensively we were pathetic. We didn’t do the basics.

“Salford played well but we didn’t show any kind of professionalism and it was below the standard of Super League.”

Asked to appraise his side’s chances of survival, Cummins conceded: “It gets tougher and tougher. We’ve just got to concentrate.

“Mathematically we can still do it but the frustrating thing is we probably wasted an opportunity here.

“I’ll look at it in more detail but it wasn’t tactical or anything. We probably had half a dozen players just way off.

“Maybe a few were hankering on getting some points back but there’s other stuff going on as well.”

Bradford lost their appeal against a six-point deduction for entering administration last Wednesday.

Victory yesterday would have seen them get to within just five points of Salford in 12th but, instead, it is their opponents who climb to 11th with a first win in nine games.

Their coach Iestyn Harris, the former Great Britain stand-off who won a Grand Final with Bradford the last time they lifted a title in 2005, said: “We’d been showing signs over the last few weeks and were just really clinical in the early stages with lots of energy.

“We’re not looking behind us and feel we can have a real shot at getting the top eight.”