Last updated 16:06, Wednesday, 27 August 2008

IT was always going to be a game for heroes, so it proved. And all the heroes wore chocolate, blue and gold.

Whitehaven’s perform-ance in knocking the stuff-ing out of Widnes Vikings, much of the time with 12 men, was nothing short of heroic. An epic encounter and great to see such euphoria at The Recre once again.

No one was more lion hearted than David Fatialofa. Weeks out of first team action, but you wouldn’t have known it the way Fats led the initial assault on Widnes’ pack after leading the team out.

Was it a clue that the redoubtable Kiwi prop would be making his last appearance at The Recre, bringing down the curtain on a distinguished 12-year career – I’m afraid so. But it won’t stop Fats turning out in the play-offs (arm perm-itting) and this very special player wants to go out with a bang of the right sort!

If Haven were out on their proverbial feet at the end of last Sunday they didn’t show it as the players deservedly took the acclaim of the crowd which I suggested last week might just roar them all the way to victory. And Ged Stokes, too. Much maligned in some quarters when he arrived, but now a man who can simply do no wrong.

“People came up to me saying ‘I never thought I’d say this but well done’. Looking back 25 weeks or so, this would have seemed a long, long, way away.”

Some might have said unthinkable to be incon-ceivable. The season started like a Grimm’s fairy story with all the financial bomb-shells but then someone waved a magic wand. Haven are through to the play-offs and if anyone wishes to write them off again it will be at their peril.

Going back to Hilton Park shouldn’t hold any terrors for a Whitehaven side with such belief and something to prove. Graeme Mattinson and Scott Teare won’t be there but look out Leigh. Strong-arm stuff won’t work second time round, not with Ryan McDonald, Marc Jackson (and Fats) due back.

How far the team can go remains to be seen but Haven have so far beaten all the full time teams in NL1 – Salford, Halifax, Celtic Cru-saders, Leigh and Widnes.

Stokes’ has a high coaching pedigree – New Zealand coach of the year in 2000 – but certificates count for nothing unless you can get players to play for you.

And the astute Kiwi got more out of Whitehaven than former Recre favourite Steve McCormack got out of a Widnes outfit which, on paper, had a lot more going for them. Stokes had his game plan spot on. If Steve Mac thought that his Vikings could pillage a pack without the juggernaut McDonald-Jackson force then he was proved wrong.

Not only did Widnes lose the so-called arm wrestle up front but if their back line has pretensions to being potentially the most potent in the division then it had the life well and truly squeezed from it. Australia calls it offensive defence – Haven had it in spades. Widnes missed some gilt edged chances but over 80 minutes you can only play as well as you’re allowed.

The question at half time was ‘can they keep it up’ after Scott Teare was red-carded for the second week in succession – indomitable spirit and determination provided the answer.

It helped when Super League ref Steve Ganson evened things up by send-ing off Michael Ostick and sin binning Richard Fletch-er but for Haven to lose would have been a travesty.

“Loads of character in the face of adversity, an immense amount of desire and one tremendous amount of courage,” was how Ged summed it up. “Fantastic, I am very proud,” he added.

Exaggeration is easy, just as it is easy to forget similar performances of such merit, but this really was a prodigious effort which, under the circumstances and the importance of the occasion, cannot have been surpassed in recent times.

What pleases me most about this Haven side is that while it has considerable firepower up front it is not biff and barge, the coaching staff clearly encourage their players to express them-selves and go for it even when the chips are down.

One last thought: Whitehaven’s new board came in for some stick when they cut costs by selling their two highest earners John Duffy and Richard Fletcher to Widnes, then definitely laughed at by recruiting a forgotten Kiwi veteran (Tane Manihera) to fill the halfback hole. And Gregg McNally also a cool-headed goalkicker, came from nowhere. No doubt who had the last laugh on Sunday.