Whitehaven's squad was called in for extra training yesterday after a poor performance in Saturday’s opening warm-up game.

The Cumbrians crashed 40-16 at Newcastle Thunder which left Gary Charlton and his coaching team very unhappy.

Charlton said: “To be fair, I know the players weren’t happy either and had no qualms about coming in on Sunday.

“We will be looking for a big improvement when we play Workington at the weekend in the Ike Southward game.

“I don’t know what it was – the artificial surface, the bad weather – but we just made too many errors.

“Newcastle thrived on our mistakes and I think they scored 20 points from them, which just wasn’t good enough.

“We were all expecting more than we got but I know there’s a determination among all the players to put it right against Town.”

Haven used 20 players during the game and suffered an early casualty when Connor Holliday stretched his hamstring after 10 minutes. We don’t think it’s an actual pull but was bad enough to end his game. He will be monitored during the week,” added Charlton.

“Jason Mossop, Kris Coward, Karl Dixon, Brett Carter and Karl Olstrom were not involved in the game but I expect them all to be in contention against Town.”

Although disappointed overall, the Haven coach did have a word of praise for the youngest member of the squad – former Hensingham amateur Jake Bradley.

“We used him at No13 where he took the ball in well and tackled ferociously. He looked really accomplished and this could be his breakthrough year,” said Charlton.

Bradley, 18, became the club’s youngest player as a trialist when he scored on debut in March, 2018 at the Recreation Ground against Hemel Stags.

Some of the most knowledgeable men on the local game have predicted a big future for the teenager who turned down Super League interest to sign a three-year contract with his home-town club.

When Bradley scored on his first appearance for Whitehaven he was only aged 16 years and 330 days but he has been kept under wraps since then, continuing his development in the amateur game.

On his debut Bradley played for Haven on the wing but operated in the pack while on duty with the England Lions squad in August, 2018.