Anthony Murray admits that confidence levels among his North Wales Crusaders squad have been hit by their poor form.

Sunday's 48-0 hammering by league leaders Bradford Bulls condemned the Wrexham club to a sixth defeat in their last seven League One outings.

A torrid run of fixtures has seen the Nix face all of the division's top six sides in quick succession, with Murray keen to put their current plight into perspective.

He said: "It has been tough for us and results have taken a bit of toll on us recently.

"The players have given it everything on the pitch and it's understandable that their confidence has taken a knock in that time.

"But we have to keep fighting and trying to improve, because even in the games we've lost there has been some really positive play from ourselves.

"The fact is that recently we've come up against all of the sides who are up there either competing for the title or among the play-off places.

"All of these clubs have invested heavily to bring success and you can see that in the quality of the squads they've assembled.

"As a team we go into every game believing that we can get a result, but as I've said before - we need to be realistic about where we are right now.

"I know we'll see improvements over time and it's a case of learning from these results and getting stronger."

The Bulls defeat saw Murray's side battle well in the opening stages, before the visitors' class came to the fore.

After an error-strewn opening 20 minutes the Bulls seized control of the game, draining the home side of possession as well as putting them to the sword in defence.

John Kear's men ran in three tries and notched a penalty to open up a 20-0 half-time lead, before the floodgates opened in the second half with five further unanswered scores completing the rout.

Murray added:"There was nothing we didn't expect in terms of the standard of Bradford's play.

"You look at the class that's in their team and it's a side that could already be competing well in the Championship.

"You look at the result they picked up at Workington, where they've put 46 points on them without reply and you realise the calibre of the side you're facing.

"For the first half of our game I felt we played pretty well. But as has been the case for most of this season, it's been a case of us not capitalising when we were on top in the game.

"It was the same against York the week before, where we've matched them for periods but they've found that moment of quality when it's mattered.

"It's up to us now to dust ourselves down and learn from these performances, because we can still finish this season on a high.

"There are five games left this season and we want to push ourselves as high up this division as we can and give pour fans something to cheer about."