WHITEHAVEN head coach James Coyle said he was disappointed with the way his players were treated by supporters during yesterday’s 30-16 defeat to Hunslet.

Coyle was forced to make a number of changes through absence and asked some players to fight through the pain barrier to play against the Hawks.

Haven were without senior players Dave Allen, Scott McAvoy and Craig Calvert and were also missing Tyla Hepi.

“We’ve been brilliant for the last month and it’s disappointing to end the run of games we’ve had like that,” Coyle said.

“I always knew it would be difficult and that we’d have bodies missing.

“We had people out there who I had no right to ask them to play, but they put their hands up.

“I’m a bit disappointed with the abuse the lads got off the fans.

“And those same fans would have been sat there two weeks ago saying how good we were.

“The lads who played for us had a dig, I’m just disappointed with how they were treated.

“We had a few missing and not had any help on our touchline.

“It’s difficult when you see the other team with five support staff and we’ve got a couple of people on their own.

“It’s difficult to get things right.

“We’ve got time to recoup and get some bodies back in for this weekend.

“We’ll have people back from holidays and trips away that were booked before the season started.

“You can see see with how the lads played that they didn’t stop playing, they didn’t not try.

“Things didn’t go right for them, and if we played like that every week I’d be worried.

“We’ve beaten three top teams in the last few weeks and one blip on the copybook in the final eight isn’t a major issue.

“It’s not a reflection of where we are at.

“It just reflects the number of bodies we didn’t have.”