Haven boss James Coyle admitted his side are ‘doing it tough’ after a defeat to Batley combined with the loss of two more key players.

Whitehaven went down 16-8 at the Recre and Jessie Joe Parker and Thomas Coyle both had to leave the field injured.

With only three games remaining before the Super 8s, Haven find themselves occupying the second relegation berth.

“We are doing it tough,” said Coyle. “We had seven people unavailable who probably would have been in the starting 13.

“We had some quality missing then we lost Jessie. Thomas was doing a good job in the role we gave him, pushing them around a bit, but when we lost him, we lost our way. I don’t know how bad they’ll be until we assess them this week.”

Coyle was disappointed with the result but says his side will work hard to try and pull themselves out of danger.

He added: “It’s a difficult place to be but the lads have got to stick together and keep working hard and try and freshen ourselves up ready for this weekend.”

Coyle was pleased with the effort shown by his players and he still believes that if they can get players back, they can kick start their season again.

“We’ve got some good players in our team and we’re playing some good rugby,” he said.

“That was a tough game and you ask any of those Batley lads, they know they’ve been in a game.

“They were uncomfortable for a lot of the time. That is a team that’s sat in the top four and rolling everybody at the minute.”

Dave Allen will return for the trip to Bradford Bulls on Sunday and Coyle hopes Ryan Duffy and Louis Jouffret could be fit for the match as well.