Whitehaven head coach James Coyle has admitted that his shortlisting in the Kingstone Press Championship Coach of the Year award was ‘unexpected’.

The Haven boss has been named in the final three shortlisted for the award alongside Leigh Centurions boss Paul Rowley and Halifax head coach Richard Marshall.

Coyle took over from Steve Deakin the week before the start of the Championship season after the former Catalans Dragons Reserves boss left the club due to family commitments.

“It was a bit unexpected when I found out,” Coyle said.

“There are different reasons for why Richard and Paul have been shortlisted too.

“It’s been a different sort of job that myself and Pete [Williams, assistant coach] have had this year.

“We had to overcome some challenges and we recognised that this year was always going to be tough for us.

“We didn’t have a lot of players at the start of the season but we have done the best with the players we have had.

“Now we’ve built a really good culture at the club. The lads believe in what we’re doing.”

Although Haven have lost their last two fixtures Coyle doesn’t believe that the defeats to Hunslet and Batley are a fair reflection of the club in its current state.

“We’ve had some poor results recently,” he continued. “But they are not a marker for how the squad has improved over the season.

“I’m not going to make excuses for the defeat to Batley. We are better than that.”

Haven general manager Amanda Hewer was delighted with the shortlisting of Coyle ahead of the end of season awards which take place in Manchester next Monday.

“If someone had said to us on that cold day in Barrow in pre-season when we had been beaten that we would be in a position where we could stay up we’d have probably laughed,” she said. “How far we have come since then is testament to James’s character.

“He does everything to make sure the team is prepared and ready for game day and I can’t put in to words how hard he actually works.

“I don’t know how he fits being head coach of the club with running his own business and spending time with his family too.

“Most people would have said ‘no’ to taking over the club when Deaks left but he took the opportunity with both hands.

“It would have been just as easy for us to take on a coach that had more experience but we believed in James.”