THE Bulldogs' injury crisis deepened last night with fears interchange hooker Michael Sullivan had ripped a hamstring off the bone.

Although the club slumped to their seventh loss in eight matches, coach Steve Folkes was slightly happier than last week, when his team suffered a record 58-18 defeat to Canberra. However, he was left lamenting a worsening injury toll that has hammered his side.

The Dogs lost winger Heka Nanai with concussion at half-time, while prop Jarrad Hickey couldn't return when he left the field with a corked thigh. And there were grave fears about Sullivan's season in the wake of last night's defeat against a second-string Roosters side.

"You get to a point where the guys you bring in aren't ready for first grade," Folkes said. "The Roosters lost 42-0 the other week and they had four guys out - we've probably got a dozen at present. That's the way footy is, and I'm not whingeing - but if you're looking for a reason, that's it."

Just as frustrating for Folkes was that victory was within his side's grasp before video referee Bill Harrigan awarded a dubious try to Roosters winger Amos Roberts with 13 minutes to go.

Replays showed Roberts might have dropped the ball while stretching for the line, while Harrigan had earlier allowed a four-pointer to Roosters winger Sam Perrett on benefit of the doubt, despite suspicions he hadn't grounded the ball.

"Too much Gladiators maybe for Bill," Folkes said in reference to Harrigan's job as referee on the Channel Seven program. "He might have different equipment to me. I thought I saw some air between the ball and his hand.

"From the replays I saw, he [Roberts] dropped the ball. Amos's reaction said it all. He was aware he dropped it. Whether that would've made a difference to the score, I don't know. That and the Perrett try in the corner. If they'd said no try for both of them, nobody would be complaining."

Asked what he thought of the Roberts try, Roosters coach Brad Fittler grinned: "50-50. I just don't look any more. I just look at the reaction of the people in front of me. I refuse to go through that little bit of pain by looking for the red or the green."

The win was particularly pleasing for Fittler, who had no less than six players absent on Origin duty. "The good thing about our side is that we have four Kiwi internationals," he said. "The problem was it was all of our back row and some of our front row [who were missing]. We had to change a few blokes around, [but] they did it with ease. By the end of the game, I thought we were running through them."

While there were plenty of stand-outs for Fittler last night, stand-in captain Mark O'Meley excelled against this old club.

"I feel for my mates, obviously," O'Meley said when asked he had sympathy for the Bulldogs. "But it's not for me to worry about any more. I have my own issues here at the Roosters."

The loss is sure to put further pressure on Folkes to resign, with assistant coach Kevin Moore already appointed to replace him next year. "It's not a lot of fun," Folkes said. "But you go through patches like this. I can say I'm doing my best."