WHITEHAVEN Rugby League faced a tough defeat over the weekend when they took on Widnes Vikings. 

Haven came away with a 12-24 defeat when they took on the Cheshire outfit at the Ortus Rec on Sunday, August 4. 

Head coach Jonty Gorley said: "It's just something in every game, last week aside, it's games that we've got, that we play, and we get in a good position. It isn't the opposition grinding their way back into the game it's always something that we do. 

"There's something substantial that happens in games that turns the game on us and that's what happened today. 

"We were 12-0 up, we gave a penalty away in possession for pushing a player off which you can't do. They scored the next set, and during that try, Gebbie got sin-binned, rightly so. 

"They got three tries before he came back on, so we're 16-12 down when he comes back on from being 12-0 up and it just goes set for set after that. 

"Obviously we came off our line every time and they're starting on the 40, so we did defend a bit better in the second half. 

"I just thought the rooks were too fast all game, I thought we got caught on the floor a lot. Even when we had three men in the tackles we'd end up with two on the floor and they're getting a fast play so it just needs to be better defensively. 

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"But then they put a kick across and we missed the kick, which meant that they scored and went 20-12 up. 

"I can't remember what the lost try was but we need to be better discipline-wise because after Widnes went 16-12 up we gave away two or three penalties again which put us on the back foot. 

"We didn't do it in the first half and up until that one penalty which tells the story. We're good with the ball, we don't give penalties away and we're 12-0 up. We give penalties away, we're defending all the time, and it's 24 unanswered points with a defeat."