HAVEN head coach James Coyle says there are now some tough decisions to make ahead of his side’s first Championship game against Halifax in a fortnight’s time.

Haven regained the Ike Southward Memorial Trophy with a 12-6 win against bitter rivals Workington Town and Coyle admits that a number of players have put strong cases forward for a spot in the 17-man squad for that game.

“A few people out there really stood up,” the Haven boss said. “I thought Jordan Burns was outstanding when he came on and it will be a tough decision between the three I’ve got for that right-wing position.

“I’ve got Jordan, Elliot [Miller] and Ed [Chamberlain] who are in contention for that spot so that will be a tough decision.

“I thought Brockie [John Paul Brocklebank] and Dion [Aiye] were both good too.

“Brockie had a real dig, his contact was good and he looked better than we expected in defence with it being his first game back.”

Coyle was pleased to record a win over his rivals for the first time in six attempts, five as head coach, but insists that he can’t read too much into the result.

“It’s good to get a win, but with the changes we made during the game we weren’t focusing on the result,” he continued. “We wanted to use the game for what it was, a pre-season warm-up.

“We looked comfortable early on and things went as I’d wanted them to.

“We made some changes and it did disrupt us a bit. Unfortunately the conditions ruined the game.

“They came out aggressively and we weathered the storm. They usually start big and maintain that for long periods but we managed to stick in.

“We wouldn’t get away with having three middles changing in and out every week.

“We can’t read too much into what happened on the pitch but it’s good to come out with the result.”

Town head coach Phil Veivers remains upbeat. After two pre-season games the Aussie is pleased with a number of aspects of his side’s performances and believes any shortfalls can be fixed before the opening Championship game a week on Sunday.

“I was happy with our fitness and both games prove that the players are fit and physical enough,” he said. “There was good contact and our line-speed was great. Systems and structures are the easy things to fix. If that’s all I’ve got to fix after two trial games then I’m happy.”

Town enjoyed enough territory in the second-half to ask questions of Haven’s defence but unforced errors crept into their game.

“It’s disappointing to lose a derby game but we had our opportunities to win in the second half,” Veivers continued. “We dominated the second half and they didn’t really have a look-in.

“We scored a nice try and then built some repeat sets but we’d cough the ball up on the first tackle and we did that on three occasions.

“We got ourselves in a position to build pressure then let it off.”