Whitehaven coach Gary Charlton believes improving the little things in his side’s game can make a big difference for them as they look to bounce back from a shaky start to the season.

Haven lost 16-14 at home to Oldham in the Championship at the weekend to remain pointless in the division after three games and leave the squad in a sombre mood.

This Sunday (3pm kick-off) will provide a welcome respite from the pressure of league action when Dewsbury Rams come to the Recreation Ground in the Challenge Cup fourth round and, with Charlton looking to spark a reaction, he is prioritising a back-to-basics approach.

“The players are not in the happiest of moods as you can probably understand,” he said. “But a few home truths usually hits the mark and we’ve just got to be better.

“We’ve got to be better in the little things, do the little one-percenters right like tackling correctly, all of the little things that we work on in training.

“It doesn’t seem to be sinking in at present.

“We’ve got Dewsbury at home in the cup and I’d like to think we can build on the Oldham game and take the negatives and make them into positives.”

While Sunday’s defeat was a bitter blow, particularly given his side were ultimately beaten by points they surrendered through penalties, Charlton felt his team had largely defended well and was focused on increasing the creativity in their attacking play.

“That’s the biggest thing for us as a coaching team, trying to get these lads back up again because, ultimately, Oldham scored a penalty try and a lucky try, really, which was a ricochet right back into his hands and he scored,” Charlton added.

“Other than that we seemed to defend all right; I just think we jump off tackles too fast and that gives the opposition time to run at us, especially from dummy half.

“Some of that can be worked on but our last-tackle options have been poor and our kicking game isn’t very good as well. It’s something we’re working on and we’ll try our best.”