BLACKBURN Hawks face a tough double header this weekend, as they entertain the Bradford Bulldogs tonight before heading off for an English Cup clash with table toppers Whitley Warriors 24 hours later.

And they'll be feeling far from confident after last Sunday's 14-1 thrashing from arch-rivals Altrincham Aces, which amounted to their fifth consecutive league defeat.

Not surprisingly, team coach Bobby Haig is less than optimistic. "What more can I add to what I said last week?" he said. "Basically, the team need to put in far more effort than they have been or we're not going to get anywhere. The team has developed a defeatist attitude, sometimes they just seem to give up.

"No disrespect to young netminder Robbie Smith, but I think the rest of the team expect us to lose if he's in the net instead of Colin Downie, and they can't be bothered to defend.

"But that's rubbish, Robbie has been playing very well. We are letting goals in because nobody is there to help Robbie out at the back.

"As for this weekend, it's hard to judge how we'll fare against Bradford. We haven't played them yet this season and I don't know their strengths and weaknesses.

"Whitley are more of a worry, always a tough team to beat and if we don't get our heads together we could lose by 20 to 30 goals."

But there is a ray of hope for the Hawks.

"It's not over for us yet," added Haig. "We're only 4 points behind third place Kingston, and if we win most of our remaining games we could well end up third in the league.

"Even the fight for the English Cup is tight. If we can win our last game, we might come second in our group to qualify into the next round.

"But things have got to change for that to happen. There's only so much I can do, I can coach the team and teach them the drills, but it's up to the players to do the rest."

The Arena doors open at 5.15pm tonight for the 6pm face off against the Bradford Bulldogs.