Defensive resilience is top of the list of things Workington Town head coach Chris Thorman is hoping to see from his side when they take on Sheffield Eagles in the Challenge Cup fifth round tomorrow (2pm kick-off).

Town go to Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium looking to reach the sixth round of the competition and book a glamour tie with a Super League club.

But Thorman insisted his players cannot afford to make a sluggish start against Sheffield as they did at Kingston Park last weekend when Newcastle Thunder were 18 points up inside 14 minutes.

Having pulled apart the positives and negatives of his team’s performance, Thorman felt it was a missed opportunity and does not want to see another one slip by this weekend.

“We’ve got to start games better because you can’t give teams like Newcastle an 18-point lead,” he said.

“Newcastle are a decent team but they were there for the taking which was the frustrating thing.

“We’ve got to be better than that because we’ve set some standards and we didn’t quite hit those, especially defensively at the start of the game.

“I did sense a bit of frustration after the game.

“It’s about shoring up our defence this week and getting back to some systems we have worked on.

“I’ll be happy as long as we learn lessons from Newcastle.”

The Town boss admitted that his disappointment with the display, despite having pushed a promotion favourite all the way, was probably recognition of how far the club has come since he arrived.

But he reiterated that he does not want to settle for “mediocrity”.

He added: “I’ve got to change the culture of the club. I’ve got all sorts of aspirations and the club should have big aspirations too.”

Thorman also revealed that he is still pursuing new signings for his squad and that money is available if the right players become available.

“That is constant; we are always looking,” he said.

“We’ve got to remember how many players we lost in the off-season.

“A significant chunk of our expenditure in the squad reduced.

“We’ll be methodical and if the right player comes up we will move.”