WOLVES coach Darryl Van de Velde was urging his players 'to believe in themselves' when he was back in the saddle with the squad yesterday, Wednesday.

After flying back from Australia on Tuesday he watched the video of Sunday's woeful performance against Salford City Reds and set his sights on building up the team for their Challenge Cup semi-final date.

He said: "To beat Bradford it is going to take a huge effort, a huge turn around in form.

"The players need to have confidence in their ability and to back themselves at this level, because this is where we have been lacking.

"They are lacking confidence in each other and have no confidence in themselves."

He knows it is a big task to turn the fortunes around in one week but it can be done.

He said: "It has been a devastating start to the season. I couldn't believe it could happen, but it has, and now we have to move on because there is nothing we can do about that.

"But we will go into this game very optimistic. It is an 80-minute contest, it is all or nothing. We have to lay it out and bare our soles."

There are areas of the team's play which must be improved.

He said: "We have to tidy up on discipline and our completion rates. We only completed 27 per cent of our sets of sixes in the second half against Salford. You can't win games with statistics like that.

"So we've got to pick it up, grab the bit and be positive.

"It is no good going into the game negative. If we give Bradford too much respect we'll be telling everyone we're inferior to them. We're not inferior to anyone and our players have to realise that."