Last updated 16:04, Wednesday, 23 July 2008

HAVEN in seventh heaven – look out Halifax!

Few gave Whitehaven the proverbial prayer at The Brewery Field but, beyond a shadow of a doubt, their stunning televised win in Wales over full-timers Celtic Crusaders was the best of the season. Circumstances made it so. It was better even than the home conquests of Celtic and Salford – both Super League bound.

Whitehaven’s decision to stay overnight in Wales after all was costly (around £3,000) but handsomely rewarded. You just couldn’t put a price on it, anything else would have sent the wrong signals. Good for everybody, sponsors and underwriters (!) included, but now the directors want fans to back a winner – which means a bumper crowd hopefully to see them down more high flyers in Fax on Sunday.

Winning in Wales against all the odds left a feeling of justified euphoria but I’m sure Ged Stokes’ best advice for this weekend’s big home game will be: Keep your feet on the ground. You’re only as good as your last game.

Let’s face it, Haven weren’t given a cat in hell’s chance of not only beating the Celts on their own Brewery Field but also completing the double over the Antipodean-flavoured Welsh outfit who got their SL licence three days later – galling indeed, sad to many but inevitable. Like it or not, expansionism is the name of the RL game.

So the drawbridge is up, leaving Haven, for one, with a lot to strive for in the next three years.

The more immediate message is: Never write off Whitehaven.....and definitely never write off Leroy Joe.

‘Smokin’ Joe lit up The Brewery Field.

Back again in the No 7 shirt and looking totally rejuvenated after his injury lay-off, the Kiwi maestro once more rolled back the years – emphatically a case of brain over brawn.

“The man is magic,” enthused Haven chairman Gordon Grace. “I don’t know where he gets his energy from. For me, he’s still the complete rugby player, a total all-rounder, just like Ian Botham was in cricket, Leroy Joe can do anything.”

It’s no surprise that when the directors soon start talking contracts, getting Joe to do another term will be pretty near top of the list.

“We have hit a rich vein of form at just the right time,” says Mr Grace, “and it seems that every week, depending on who we play, Ged Stokes comes up with a different style... and it works.”

Gordon Grace is happy to talk of “Ged’s team” and it was good to see former chairman Des Byrne in the sparse looking Bridgend crowd sporting the chocolate blue and gold among Haven’s small but enthusiastic travelling army.

It’s not long since some of us were bemoaning the lack of leadership in various parts of the field (Joe was missing then) but, all of a sudden, it’s there in spades.

Tane Manihera was again another calming influence at Bridgend and, of course, Gary Broadbent. If Leroy Joe still possesses some of the accomplishments which have made him Whitehaven’s best all-round player for so long, then skipper Broadbent is the rock on which this team is built. And his last-ditch defence was instrumental in killing off the Crusaders. Gary oozed confidence before the game and definitely on the field.

Belief is key. Not only is Ged’s team high on octane but it is one playing with control and composure. The ability to apply and take pressure.

So Haven sit a comfortable fifth in the table – almost like a mirage after everything that’s gone before – with good play-off prospects.

Mike Graham, the Haven director who has also worked wonders to help rescue the club from the abyss, phoned me from his holiday in the south of France on Saturday evening to remind me of a conversation we had after the previous week’s win at Sheffield.

“I told you then and I am telling you again, we won’t lose another match,” chirped Mike, no doubt high on red wine but still deadly serious.

Halifax, second in the table, might have something to say about that at The Recre on Sunday.

Whitehaven recently took a fearful beating at The Shay but, regardless of whether or not Mr Stokes changes a winning team, who would bet against them putting the skids under Fax – and Graham Holroyd, the perennial Haven nemesis.

I predicted Haven getting six points from nine in three crucial games. I confess I wasn’t counting on anything from the Brewery Field, so now it has to be the full complement.

Haven know they can't count any chickens but the better the opposition the better they play – and they are starting to do it more consistently.