Captain Marc Shackley believes Haven’s trip to Oldham is a “must-win” as his side bid to keep their play-off hopes alive.

A heavy 46-0 defeat to Bradford Bulls brought Haven’s six-game winning run to an end, pushing them out of League One’s top five.

On Sunday, they travel to Greater Manchester to take on play-off rivals Oldham.

Shackley said: “It’s a must-win if we want to keep pushing for the play-offs. There’s no reason we can’t go to Oldham and win – on our day we can beat anyone.

“It was tough going down to Bradford, we’re doing it tough at the minute. We said after the match it’s happened, now we’ve just got to get on with it. We’ve got to be positive and have a good week in training.”

Haven lost 14-0 to Oldham at the Recreation Ground in their first League One game of 2018, during a tricky start to the season.

However, despite having a small, injury-hit squad, they have remained in contention for promotion throughout the campaign.

“Bradford away is a hard game for any team,” said Shackley. “If we win this week and win all the games we’d be expected to win then we’ll still make the play-offs.

“We’re going to come up against a lot of the teams around us. The spirit is really good, with the size of our squad we shouldn’t be as high as we are.”

Shackley admitted many of his team-mates are playing with injuries but “keep putting their hand up” when needed.

The squad has been boosted by the addition of two amateurs – Jordan Thomson, from Hensingham, and Jordan Herve, from Kells – who made their debuts against Bradford. And former Haven stars Craig Calvert, Carl Sice and Steven Roper have rejoined the club.

The captain said: “It’s always nice to have new faces come in, they’ve been there and done it. They’ve got experience and they’ll give other lads a rest. It’s good to have them around – hopefully after a few more training sessions they’ll be ready to play.”

Coach Carl Forster will assess his players at training this week before naming his squad to face Oldham.