They may not have come away with the points but there were still a number of positives for CSU in their 34-24 loss to Central West Rugby Union rivals Bathurst Bulldogs on Saturday.

The side has now lost four matches in a row, but their performance against the Bulldogs was a vast improvement from seven days earlier when going down 34-17 to Dubbo Rhinos.

CSU were always a chance against the Bulldogs and it wasn’t until Scott Johnston dived over in the final minute of the match that the students were consigned to another defeat.

“I think it was a very solid effort from all 15 blokes who were on the field at one time,” students co-coach Andrew Gordon said. “Everyone put in, there were no passengers.

“First up tackles cost us, everything else was good.

“We muscled up and we were very strong defensively around the edges of the ruck and we were also very strong with the ball in hand.

“I think one to 10 were very strong. Our outside backs were great in attack, but everyone played well.”

After going into half-time locked at 14-all with the Bulldogs, Gordon said the team were still very positive and he felt with a few small improvements they could come away with a result.

“I just told them to continue the way they worked on them and also to look at ball-to-deck, in defence bringing them to ground,” the co-coach said.

“We did that for 80 per cent of the second half and when we didn’t it cost us.

“It was evenly matched across the field but if we had a weakness it is that we need to work on that one-on-one defence, bringing them down, that’s where they had it on us.

“It was of our own fault basically. Any breaks they made were due to our own issues with first-up tackles.”

Gordon said he felt that it wouldn’t take much to get his side back onto the winners’ list.

“Yeah I think we have just got to highlight for the boys what the issues are and the issues are nothing serious,” the CSU mentor said.

“The issues are just minor things that we need to work on.”