Whitehaven head coach Gary Charlton pulled no punches after watching his team lose a scrappy game at home to fellow Championship strugglers Oldham.

Charlton felt his side had opportunities to put their visitors to the sword but shot themselves in the foot time after time, with several penalties contributing to an eventual 16-14 defeat for Haven to leave them pointless after three games.

He said: “We’ve got to take responsibility for ourselves.

“We had enough chances in that second half where we never built any pressure and we never took the right option when we needed to.

“We’ve got to take it on the chin and say we just weren’t good enough today, especially with the ball in hand again.”

Haven had felt unfortunate to lose out after a gritty performance at London Broncos the previous weekend, but this showing was much more like the frustrating opening-day defeat against Swinton and saw another opportunity to take a vital first win slip through their grasp.

Charlton admitted his team seemed to be making problems for themselves and were often victims of their own mistakes rather than any clinical or quality play from their visitors.

“It was exactly the same as Swinton,” Charlton said.

“We’re learning and we’re doing it the hard way.

“They weren’t special. I just felt we were very, very poor with the ball in hand and never asked enough questions, never built enough pressure.

“When we did build a bit of pressure we let it off by giving either a poor kick or an incompletion.

“You can’t do that; it doesn’t matter if they’re the best or worst team.

“The way we played today was very disappointing and we’ve had a few stern words in there.

“There are a few going to be upset in the next week or so.”