“Embarrassing” was what Jonty Gorley labeled his side’s performance as they fell to defeat against a Newcastle Thunder side who secured only their third league victory of the season to bring themselves close to the battle to avoid the drop in the Championship. 

Haven found themselves down by 14 points at the break with tries from two former players and twins Jay and Ted Chapelhow. The first of the afternoon came from Jay Chapelhow as he supported a break from former Super League star Mitch Clark. 

Chapelhow was on the left-hand shoulder of Clark and took the ball under the sticks to score. Jack Miller took on the kicking duties in the absence of former Haven player Nikau Williams and slotted over the conversion. 

Haven seemed to score their first of the afternoon in the 24th minute as Curtis Teare sauntered over but the effort was ruled out as Teare was judged to have run behind his own man obstructing the Thunder defence. 

The no-try was compounded in the following five minutes firstly from the boot of Jack Miller as he slotted a penalty goal over following Haven being penalised for an infringement at the scrum. 

The hammer blow came on the half-hour mark as Ted Chapelhow powered over from short range under the sticks. Miller converted for a half-time advantage of fourteen points. 

The start of the second half provided little respite for Haven as Gideon Boafo touched down in the left-hand side corner on the back of poor choices in the Haven defence just five minutes into the half. Miller couldn’t convert from out wide and the visitors may have been relieved to only be eighteen points down. 

But the Cumbrians staged a mini-revival soon after scoring back-to-back tries to reduce the deficit to six points. The first try came from loanee George Hill as the young hooker scooter over from the dummy half for his first professional try. 

Jake Carter also crossed for his Whitehaven try since signing for his second spell with the club diving on the end of a perfectly weighted grubber from Jamie Doran. Josh Rourke converted both tries.

But that was as good as it got as the play they had shown to get back into the game had deserted them and they couldn’t get any further points on the board. 

The home side scored two tries in the final five minutes to secure the victory and what they will be hoping can be the catalyst to inspire a run of form to secure their Championship survival.