Featherstone Rovers: Lack of composure cost us dear says Ryan Carr

Rovers led 26-8 at Bradford Bulls with eight minutes left, but the hosts staged an astonishing rally to level the scores and then won the tie with a Jordan Lilley drop goal in golden point extra-time.

“It is devastating,” Carr said of his team’s second one-point loss at Odsal this year.

“We had done enough to win the game, all we had to do was show some composure and close it out.

“We didn’t, that is on us.

“We should have been better defensively in the last period to win the game.”

Reflecting on how the fifth-round tie swung away from his side, Carr added: “We dropped the ball over the line with seven or eight minutes to go and didn’t touch the ball until the end of the game.

“You can’t win if you don’t have the ball. They found some momentum and we weren’t good enough to stop it – and we need to be good enough to stop it.

“That is rugby league, teams have momentum and you have got to find a way to turn up.

“I am disappointed for my boys; it is not up to the standard we expect of ourselves.

“We should have been better in the last 15 minutes.”

Carr took off big guns James Lockwood and Cameron King with 10 minutes to go, when it seemed Rovers were cruising through. Of that change, he insisted: “I have got confidence in all of my players, anyone that takes the field has got to do their job. It is not up to two people.

“I don’t put it [the result] down to that.”

With their usual dual-registration players unavailable, Rovers fielded a much-changed line-up which included prop Jack Bussey playing at stand-off.

Carr – whose team are at home to York in the Betfred Championship on Friday – said: “We have got players playing out of position everywhere.

“It is what it is, we aren’t going to make excuses for it.

“We have got players doing things that aren’t always their job. It is a tough position to be put in.”