Whitehaven coach Gary Charlton felt his side had produced their poorest display of the season on Wednesday.

A 22-16 defeat against Dewsbury Rams dumped them out of the Challenge Cup, and deprived the Cumbrians of a trip to Newcastle Thunder on Saturday.

Charlton said: “We were poor, yet we had enough chances to have won it which is the frustrating thing.

“Again it was not being able to go set to set with the opposition and the fact we gave away too many penalties.

“Generally I thought we defended well, but the tackling for their winning try was non-existent, very disappointing.”

At 16-14 ahead, Whitehaven had their best spell of pressure and could have scored two tries which could have set up the first win of the season.

But they couldn’t make it count and after Dewsbury levelled with a penalty, they won it with a converted try eight minutes from the end.

“The coaching staff is hurting like mad because we are no wins from six games and I hope the players feel the same.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t making the same mistakes week to week.

"I thought we'd learned from it when we played London, but it’s more or less been the same since then, apart from a good first-half at Widnes.

“We now have ten days to work hard on the training field and try and get it right for the next game against Batley.

“There are no easy games, though, in the Championship and Batley will provide a test for us so we have to come-up with the right answers.

“It is coming to the point now when we have to say we're going for the best team every week,” said Charlton.