Under-siege Canterbury coach Dean Pay has urged fans to keep the faith after his Bulldogs slumped to another disappointing loss on Saturday night.
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Up against a Canberra Raiders side missing a number of players due to injury and Origin commitments, the Bulldogs suffered a heartbreaking 12-10 loss.
It was an all too familiar feeling for fans and Dubbo product Pay, and the former CYMS mentor is all too aware players and the Belmore faithful are hurting.
"They're devastated, we don't want to be where we are," Pay said.
"We're working as hard as we possibly can to get off the bottom of the ladder.
"With what we've got, we're young and still developing in our footy.
"We need to get some consistency in what we're doing. We have some really good periods, we need to make sure we have those periods for longer in the game."
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After repeatedly turning over the ball (completing just 15 of 21 sets) and shooting themselves in the foot in the first half, the Bulldogs slumped to a 10-0 deficit at the break.
But they seemingly turned a corner at halftime and by the 65-minute mark they were back on level pegging.
However, the Raiders' class shone through in the end as returning Englishman John Bateman and Jarrod Croker - who came up with a one-on-one steal on Reimis Smith before booting the winning penalty goal - got their side home.
It leaves the Bulldogs languishing at the bottom of the table with a 3-9 record but it was also their fourth loss of the year by eight points or less.
Pay said that Croker's strip changed the momentum of the game but refused to fault his side's effort.
At one point they had five back-to-back sets to score twice in five minutes to come storming back into the game.
Winger Christian Crichton also went close to scoring on two occasions in the second-half, only to be denied by some desperate Raiders scrambling defence.
"We need to keep doing what we're doing and execute like we are when we did score those couple of tries," Pay said.
Pay and his Bulldogs meet the St George Illawarra Dragons next round.
