Coaches have to be careful discussing referees in public but James Coyle’s assessment at Whitehaven on Saturday probably said it all.

“I am lost for words,” was how he summed-up the handling of the game with Featherstone which Rovers won 44-22.

Whitehaven had three tries disallowed by referee Warren Turley but there were other aspects of his performance which disappointed the home club and its supporters.

At one point he stopped play and the clock to allow a Featherstone forward to have his head bandaged at the dug-out.

But later when a Whitehaven player went down with a head injury play was allowed to continue. And from that set Featherstone scored one of their seven tries.

The fact that the referee’s performance was the main after-match talking point rather deflected from Craig Calvert’s record-breaking performance.

After equalling David Seeds record of 225 tries for the club last month, the former Wath Brow amateur scored two in the first 20 minutes to establish, and then build on, a new record.

If coach Coyle was reluctant to talk about the referee in specifics, he was still full of praise for his side’s efforts in adversity.

He said: “I thought that was our best performance of the season in many ways.

“Our energy levels were good and it was an enthusiastic effort.

“Technically, what we did out there was what we work on in training. And we carried it out well.

“If we continue to play like that for the rest of the season I’d be more than happy, just as long as we get the rub of the green, which we certainly didn’t get against Featherstone.”

That was Whitehaven’s catch-up game when they could have moved significantly up the table with a win.

Haven remain in a relegation place and the bottom of the Championship makes grim reading for west Cumbrian rugby league fans as Workington Town are the only team below Haven.

There’s another huge game for Coyle’s men on Saturday when they host Dewsbury, who are only two points better off and have been slipping gradually down the table.