Murray: Self-belief remains strong at Panthers despite defeats

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“It probably swings around in the grandest of schemes when you look at the whole season. You hope that it balances itself out. But I thought we were on the end of a few rough ones today.

“Sometimes, when you come to places like Featherstone, were they’re supposed to win, supposed to be dominant, it can be quite hard to get a penalty at times because you shouldn’t play the ball fast. You shouldn’t be getting on the front foot at times.”

Having faced Featherstone in back-to-back games, Halifax will now have a week off before returning to action with a game against another title challenger, Leigh Centurions.

Grix added: “We started believing a bit last week. We play another team that should smash everyone. It’s a good challenge for us at home.

“We’ll quickly get over this, probably not too quickly as there’s a lot of broken hearts as opposed to broken bodies in that changing room. We’ll have to move on quick.”

Meanwhile, last week’s man of the match Dan Murray admitted he’s not worried about Halifax’s recent run of defeat.

The 25-year-old said: “You can see the belief in the side. That’s the promising thing.

“We’ve seen a fire in the belly and you’ve seen it on the pitch.

“Back end of the second half, we kind of went in on ourselves.

“That’s what was the pitfall of our game for us.

“Consistency for 80 minutes that’s our goal for going against Leigh.

“I still have belief in our squad. We’ve had some great progression coming off last season.

“I’m not worried [about] coming off three defeats. It will come. It about tying things together and it’s very early on in the season.

“It’s a 27-game season and I still believe in everyone that we have in our squad.

“You’ve seen on the pitch how hard we work for each other and buy into the ethos Simon [Grix] and all the backroom staff are creating at Halifax Panthers. I still believe in everyone.”

Things don’t get any easier for Halifax who face a home clash with Leigh on Monday, March 21.

Murray is wary of Leigh’s threat saying: “I watched them against Widnes and that’s their focus - to get 80 minutes out.”

He added: “We need to start well against them and see what happens really. Stay in the armwrestle.”

When asked about his own game this season, Murray added: “I’m liking getting more minutes. I like playing longer minutes.

“I obviously look for improvements but that’s just me, I never settle. I’ll dissect this game, build and look for improvements.”