Whitehaven RLFC 30-10 Rochdale Hornets

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Sunday’s defeat to Whitehaven up in Cumbria certainly won’t be the making of our season, as we are likely to come up against some other tough competition on our travels this year. It’s going to be a season in which teams take points off each other, and I've said it since the fixtures were revealed a few months back, home form this season is the key to promotion.

That said, it was very disappointing to come away from the Recreation Ground without even a bonus point, but there were instances within the game that led to our downfall.

Losing Paul Crook, our main ball player, through injury after just 16 minutes, was a hug loss on the day. We all know what he brings to our team and losing the man who gives us our direction had the effect that I expected it to, and we lost our direction!

To lose Paul through a late challenge was annoying and this will be something that I will be speaking with Ian Smith about in due course.

My response to losing Paul Crook was to shuffle around the side, and to change to plan B, as I was always conscious that without him, plan A would be ineffective.

With the players at my disposal on the day, we decided to go toe to toe with Haven, and at times I felt we did just that. A few of the lads had to take on un-practiced roles, but they put their hand up for the team and just got on with it.

Our shape throughout the afternoon was affected by our loss, but it shouldn't have had any effect on our push and enthusiasm which at times I thought was average at best. I was unhappy with a handful of players who felt that they didn't need to offer themselves for the ball, and were happy to rely on others to get us going forward.

Being just 12 - 6 down at half time, I was confident that we could come out and take it to our hosts, and after a first half of poor completion, I thought if we could be a little more ruthless with possession, we could put them under pressure. We started the second half with 2 repeat sets and in our third attacking set came up with a poor final pass option which let Whitehaven off the hook.

They took game by the scruff of the neck at that point and pushed us down field on the back of some very poor discipline and posted the first try of the half, after also knocking over 2 points from a penalty for offside at the kick off, which is unacceptable at this level.

But, that said, we still weren't out of the game, and at 18 - 6 down, we decided to play some typical Hornets rugby league and ask the opposition some questions. A fantastic team try got us into the game and we really looked good for a 10 minute spell which put Haven on the back foot.

With 15 minutes to go, and numerous players carrying injuries, including Steven Bannister being forced to leave the field, we seemed to have nothing left, and finishing with 12 players due to injuries and no available interchanges, Whitehaven went on to score 2 late tries to push the scoreline out and make it a little flattering to them I thought.

Injuries to Paul Crook, Steven Roper, Wayne English, Danny Davies, Mark Hobson and Stephen Bannister certainly didn't help our cause, but to say that the performance wasn't up to our usual standard, and we went close against one of the league favourites away from home, paints a reasonably positive picture.

We'll take the criticisms on board as always and the players will certainly be told some home truths about their individual performances, but let me assure you that it certainly isn't back to the drawing board, and we will look forward to putting the wrongs right this week in the Challenge Cup against East Hull.

We anticipate a really tough month ahead with an away trip to North Wales Crusaders and also a local derby against Oldham here at Spotland, and immediately after that we have a glut of away fixtures against some good sides.

Hopefully, we will have learnt some lessons on our Cumbrian trip and next time around we will show far more enthusiasm across the board.

John Stankevitch