BARRIE McDermott today urged rugby league fans not to desert Great Britain in their hour of need in this weekend's Ashes decider at Wigan.

The Leeds front row forward admits Britain let the fans down in Saturday's 40-12 defeat by Australia at the Reebok Stadiumbut insists the players will be out to make amends at the JJB Stadium.

"I'm disappointed that we lost but I'm more disappointed for those people who came to watch the game and went home bitterly, bitterly disappointed," he said.

"That affects the players. We want people to come and get behind us but they've every right to show their anguish at the performance that they saw in the first half.

"We expected a backlash and that Australia wouldn't make the same mistakes and we tried to come up with a different strategy for this week.

"Unfortunately, that strategy didn't work and we'll have to go back and start again. Luckily, there's another game. That wasn't the decider."