These are worrying times for Whitehaven as they just can’t find a win and remain looking over their shoulders at the three teams below them.
Latest disaster was this afternoon at the LEL Arena where a disappointing second-half performance saw them crash to a 46-6 defeat to Batley Bulldogs.
But Jonty Gorley’s men had to play from the 37th minute after Karl Olstrom was sent off for throwing the punch.
They hung in as best they could but were seriously undone in the last quarter when they shipped five tries.
The pressure cranks up for Sunday’s trip to fellow strugglers Dewsbury who were thumped 66-0 at Halifax earlier in the week.
It took only eight minutes for the visitors to go in front when Tom Gilmore hoisted a high ball which was palmed backwards by Lucas Walshaw for Dale Morton to go over. Gilmore converted.
It was pretty even for a while and Whitehaven had their moments but Batley were able to double their lead on 31 minutes.
A kick through from James Meadows was successfully chased by Walshaw to get in for the touchdown and again Gilmore converted.
But two minutes later Whitehaven were given hope when Andrew Bulman made the line and Nikau Williams converted.
Those hopes were soon extinguished for on 37 minutes Olstrom was red-carded for throwing a punch – leaving the hosts with just over half the game to play with 12 men.
From the resultant penalty Luke Hooley was on target and the visitors went in at half-time 14-6 to the good.
It was a seriously tough ask for Whitehaven in the second-half, especially as the Bulldogs scored within two minutes when Ben White just managed to hold off a home tackler to ground the ball. Gilmore converted.
To be fair to the handicapped home side they battled with spirit but in the final quarter of the game the effort told and they shipped five more tries, one of them by Alistair Leak who hails from Egremont.
Morton, Hooley, Kieran Buchanan and Martyn Reilly scored the others.
