Whitehaven 0, Featherstone 48

Whitehaven’s relegation was all-but confirmed after another poor performance at the Recreation Ground.

Champions elect effected a ruthless coup-de-grace to a Whitehaven side which bore little or no resemblance to the one which has competed at the top level of the Championship before.

The defeat had the stat men scouring the record books, eventually coming-up with the dispiriting memo that this was the heaviest home defeat for over a decade.

For ten minutes, early in the game, when they only trailed 4-0 Whitehaven had competed equally. They gave everything to the cause and made a contest of it, but eventually the class within the Featherstone ranks began to show and by early in the second-half it had become a very one-sided contest.

Indiscipline didn’t help as the final penalty count was 13-4 against the west Cumbrians – and that’s not the first time Whitehaven have paid for their discretions.

There were renewed calls for coach Ged Stokes to stand down as supporters made their feelings known at the final whistle.

But a defiant Stokes told BBC Radio Cumbria: “As far as I know, the board have confidence in me, I certainly have confidence in the board. Some fans expressed themselves the way they do, but that’s the way it is.

“There’s a blame culture in sport and head coaches have to accept it. There’s a good old saying that when the team is going well it’s the players, and when it’s going badly it’s the coach.

“Sport is about winning and losing, highs and lows. At the moment it’s on a low, but there will be other highs.

“I make sure I do everything I can within my power to put out as good a team, as well-prepared as I can on the day.

“You have to keep the players’ heads up. The team spirit has shown all year with players knowing very well that it will be a battle every week.

“It’s very difficult to walk across the chalk when you know you might not have the strongest team out but that you have to play for each other.”

It had taken only two minutes for Featherstone to take the lead, virtually from their first set of six. Zak Hardacre was on the end of Liam Finn’s cross-field kick to dive over for an unconverted try.

Whitehaven then enjoyed their best, most competitive spell of the game, but once Featherstone had got themselves back into the game they quickly took control.

Finn dummied his way over from close range and Kyle Briggs added the conversion on 15 minutes.

Four minutes later Hardacre hacked on a kick from Briggs and won a race with Loz Hamzat to the touchdown which went unconverted.

Seasoned forward Stuart Dickens was next to go over under the posts with Briggs tacking on the extras.

Rovers were fortunate in scoring their fifth try. Ian Hardman seemed to spill the ball when he was tackled close to the home line but play was waved on and when play was moved wide Sam Smeaton went over.

It was 30-0 at the break because on 38 minutes Briggs slipped too easily past two defenders to make the line and this time Finn added the conversion.

On the credit side Haven worked hard to win back some pride in the second-half but were still comfortably second best.

Featherstone resumed their scoring routine seven minutes after the restart when Andy Kain raced 20 yards and it was too late when Haven got in a tackle as he was able to dive for the line.

The next try came on 57 minutes when Finn’s cross kick was gathered by Hardacre who had Smeaton and Kain in support.

Kain could have touched down under the posts himself but gave Tony Tonks a simple pass to score. Finn converted.

Whitehaven battled on and only conceded two more tries, with Hardman (75) and Smeaton (79) both going in for unconverted efforts. If Featherstone had kicked their tries the score would have been nearer 60 but only four of the ten were improved.

On a bad day for the club the highlight came beforehand when there was a special presentation to second row forward Spencer Miller to mark his 250th appearance for the club.

Haven: Benson, Eilbeck, D. Miller, McAvoy, Hamzat, Skee, Dalton, Amor, Mattinson, Johnston, S. Miller, Hill, Barker. Subs (all used) Joe, Thornley, Bower, Wilton.

Referee: Warren Turley.

Crowd: 825

MAL WALKER was at the Recreation Ground representing Getnoticedonline.co.uk and took the shots of Spencer Miller’s shirt presentation; Graham Mattinson and Kurt Wilton in action.

Mal's prints can be bought at £25 for an A4 framed and £40 for an A3 framed. Prints only are £10 A4 and £15 A3. 
 

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