Last updated 15:55, Wednesday, 09 April 2008

MONEY will be made available for team strengthening at Whitehaven but Ged Stokes isn’t in a desperate hurry to get the directors to open their limited purse strings.

“There’s no need to press the panic button yet,” says Ged.

This is despite four successive defeats, though only one of them under Ged’s charge as new head coach.

Not that anyone is too pleased, least of all Ged, to see his side dumped unceremoniously out of the Northern Rail Cup by a second division outfit.

Oldham may be a first division class side but, even so, Haven were expected to kick on from the previous week’s good performance in defeat at Widnes.

So the chances of emulating last season’s feat in reaching the Northern Rail Final and, moreover, atoning for the humiliation at the hands of Widnes has gone.

It was a maddening reversal in the snow at Oldham. The pressure is now on with the return to NL1 action against Celtic Crusaders tomorrow.

Haven are joint bottom with three defeats out of three in sharp contrast to the much-vaunted Crusaders who have won two out of three as well as pulling off a handsome Northern Rail Cup victory away to Halifax.

That might not mean a thing when the teams run out under The Recre floodlights.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There’s nothing more predictable about Whitehaven than their unpredictability!

Ged’s team is as likely to scalp the Crusaders as they were to lose their heads in those two embarrassing Easter defeats to Featherstone and Batley, with such a cost to Paul Crarey’s health and job.

As assistant coach Peter Smith said to me in a recent interview, it’s still a case of the better the opposition, the better Haven play.

Here’s hoping the maxim rings true against Celtic because Haven have to start turning things round quickly, bearing in mind that the following week they are away to hot championship favourites Salford. Both Crusaders, who have more Aussie accents than Welsh, and the City Reds have strong applications in for Super League status so maybe Haven can prove a point with a couple of special performances.

Those fans who talked of boycotting The Recre after Stokes’ appointment may not have meant it but they are pretty disgruntled after the Cup K.O. at Oldham.

Not that staying away will do any good.

The new directors, now to be joined by a lady, are appealing for supporters to keep the faith and that Ged needs time to turn things round.

By the same token, it’s up to the players to keep the faith not only with their fans but also to the club as a whole and the people who have staked a lot to find the financial wherewithal to keep Whitehaven RLFC alive.

It’s no good being brilliant one week and mediocre the next.

With the wolves driven from the door, the next behind the scenes moves comes tonight (Thursday) with a meeting of Whitehaven ‘92 Ltd, which saved Haven from going under 16 years ago and owns 70 per cent of the parent club.

More of the financial facts and figures will be laid bare officially at this meeting but, whatever else comes to light, the threat to Haven’s existence is over and the focus thankfully has switched to the playing side.

In this respect, another appropriate maxim is that winning becomes a habit, but so does losing.

Desire, or lack of it, as well as indiscipline has been a factor in Haven’s losing streak, but not at Widnes, when the side were said to be “doing it for Paul”. So there was an interesting cameo on Radio Cumbria last Sunday when Ged Stokes disagreed with seasoned commentator John Cox who felt that Haven were again short of enthusiasm.

Mr Stokes felt it was more to do with having two in the sin bin at the same time (again lack of discipline), losing Richard Fletcher injured early on, and moreover, the 11th hour withdrawal through illness of playmaker Rudd.

This clearly affected the game-plan, but should one player make the difference against allegedly inferior opposition?

Ged Stokes says it’s not all doom and gloom. He saw some positives at Oldham, and wants his charges to get to grips with the pace of the game. Where have we heard that before?

The new boss knows he has to get things right at half-back, hopefully Carl Rudd will return and he’d like nothing better than to see Fletcher prove himself a leader from the front.

Haven must start their own crusade on Friday – by delivering.