WHITEHAVEN put in their worst performance of the season during a shocking 28-6 loss to fierce rivals Workington Town.

The West Cumbrian derby couldn’t have gone worse for James Coyles’ Haven side, as they went down in front of a bumper 1,700-strong crowd at The Recre.

Coyle admitted he had not seen Haven play as badly since the start of the season, and was left lost for explanations after the heavy defeat.

He said: “I couldn’t tell you where it’s gone wrong, whether it’s a mental issue or a bit of a hoodoo they’ve got over us.

“We’ve struggled every time we’ve played Workington this year. We didn’t put anything together or break them down.

“They beat us across the park and we’ve been beaten by a better team. There are no real excuses to make. We weren’t good enough.”

Craig Calvert scored a late try to avoid an embarrassing whitewash – the 215th of his career.

On a day where both Whitehaven and Workington were desperate for a win to help their fight for Championship survival, it was always going to come down to who wanted it more.

Town forced repeat sets with their first two possessions and there was then an all-too familiar feeling for Haven fans.

For the fourth time in 2015, Town won the spoils and consigned the home side to a fifth straight derby defeat.

Elliott Miller bagged a superb brace in the first half to give Town a 12-0 lead at the break with man-of-the-match Jarrod Sammut kicking both conversions.

Haven were denied a try of their own on 30 minutes and Town went in two tries ahead at the break.

It took 10 minutes for Town to add to their lead and they did through dual-reg centre Iain Thornley before Sammut scored a breakaway 80-metre try after latching on to a poor Haven pass to put his team 22-0 ahead.

With eight minutes to go Miller picked up his hat-trick to put Town 28-0 up.

Haven avoided being nilled by Town for the third time this year as they scored through Calvert a minute from time, but it was a mere consolation as they moved to just a point behind their local rivals in the Championship table.

Despite the defeat Whitehaven remain eighth in the league table with just two games of the regular season to play.

The loss makes Sunday’s home fixture with Dewsbury Rams all the more important, according to Coyle.

He said: “We need to stick together. You go through good patches and rough patches.

“With it being Workington it’s a big deal and the boys understand that.

“Whether we got too tense before the game I don’t know. We need to move forward together and improve for Dewsbury.”