Last updated 15:56, Wednesday, 16 April 2008

I BELIEVE this team can be a real excitement machine – so says Haven’s new head coach Ged Stokes, who was naturally in exultant mood after his team had played Celtic Crusaders off the Recreation Ground pitch.

Whether it’s an exaggeration remains to be seen. Excitement is probably the last word to describe Whitehaven over the recent turbulent winless weeks, but now all has changed.

Typical Haven indeed. Last week, I said I wouldn’t be surprised if the Crusaders felt a big backlash, but I was taken aback, and delighted, by the sheer margin of victory.

But remember one win, however consummate the performance, doesn’t make the proverbial. But how come a strong Welsh outfit can be given such a drubbing by a team which has no chance of reaching the promised land for at least another three years?

With both Haven and Town making such poor starts to 2008, I hear talk, perhaps inevitably, that once again a merger is the only way for either to ever realise the dream, but what’s changed?

Yes, a West Cumbrian team in Super League is utopia but, as I’ve said so many times, an amalgamation can work only if the “dream team” played at a neutral equidistant venue, ideally at Lillyhall.

So unless anyone has the solution, and moreover the financial wherewithal, it remains a dead argument as both clubs press ahead with their own ambitions.

The mood and frustration has certainly lifted at The Recre, rising over the hot air apparently generated in last week’s stormy shareholders meeting!

Friday’s Carl Rudd-inspired performance was all the more surprising when you consider that only a few hours earlier the town was buzzing about the departure of Peter & Paul – Peter Smith, right hand man to five previous coaches, and Paul Taylor, a respected fitness conditioner, both leaving in the wake of Mr Stokes’ restructure.

The pair have gone with dignity. As far as Peter is concerned, I’m sure he thought the writing was on the wall when Stokes brought in his ex-Workington henchman Les Ashe. It made Peter’s position pretty untenable, but despite all the deserved thanks, there’s no more sentiment in sport than in business.

Life goes on and the new team will only be judged as good as their results. And what a wonderfully unexpected start for the Stokes-Ashe-David Seeds triumvirate.

Some might say too many cooks spoil the coaching broth but, if Friday’s performance becomes the norm rather than the exception, then no one will be bothered.

Haven played some terrific stuff and I wonder how much influence Seeds had on the refreshing back play. Here’s hoping he can be as talismanic in plotting the moves as he was in executing them on the field, although Liam Finch, returning to Barrow, won’t be part of it.

Paul Crarey was genuinely pleased to hear of Friday’s display first-hand from skipper Gary Broadbent.

“Whitehaven can beat anybody on their day,” Crarey told me, but quickly added: “When they put their minds to it. It’s all about attitude.”

On the eve of the Crusaders game, there was even talk of a players’ revolt but, true or not, the team reacted remarkably well and in the most positive fashion to another episode of upheaval.

Let’s hope now for an end to the turmoil and Haven can consistently produce the excellence which Ged Stokes says should be their stock in trade.

“Everything worked exactly to plan last Friday,” he confessed. “I was over the moon for the players, we hit all the right buttons from a coaching perspective and the players put it into practice on the pitch, playing the kind of stuff you dream about.

“You have to pinch yourself sometimes, but I am a great believer in that nothing has changed in the way the game has to be played. If the forwards are going forward the backs will get quality possession.

“It’s an exciting time to be involved with Whitehaven, there are players good enough to produce high quality football.”

And the “excitement machine” reference? Well, the rhetoric might seem a bit lavish and reminds me of Paul Cullen’s unforgettable comment: “The talent at Whitehaven is frightening.”

There might well have been something in that as the core of Paul’s team went on to win NL1 silverware and reach two successive Grand Finals with Steve McCormack, so fingers crossed there’ll be plenty of excitement ahead under the Stokes regime.

Starting with some more of the joie de vivre against Lezignan!