Last updated 15:00, Thursday, 21 February 2008

WHETHER it’s a coup d’etat or a coup de-grace, depends on your point of view, but the position is that Haven’s new directors have to breathe new life into the club and moreover new money – pretty soon, too.

The club’s cash situation may not be critical but the introduction of so much new blood to the Board must bring with it a financial transfusion.

Just when many of us thought that Haven’s finances were healthy enough compared to most other National League outfits (maybe they still are!) comes news of a likely £100,000-plus deficit in the near future.

But a new broom headed by chairman Gordon Grace is determined to sweep away the financial cobwebs and get the club back on course for Super League – and there’s three years now to do it.

The Holy Grail of Super League may be partly to blame for the situation. There’s a fine line to be drawn between realising ambitions and fans’ expectations while keeping a club in the black, but unlike some of their rivals, Haven have not staked all and finished with nothing!

But now there are key issues to be addressed and a solution (see Front Page) required urgently to the most pressing problem of financing the proposed new 1,000-seater grandstand which would hopefully revitalise the whole Recreation Ground scene.

But, by the same token, anyone watching Sky TV’s Boots ‘n’ All last week could only shake their heads and wonder at the enormity of the challenge facing clubs like Whitehaven and Workington Town in order to meet Super League criteria.

Whoever gets the super-duper stadium first remains to be seen – Town reckon they aren’t too far away – but in the short term Whitehaven’s focus has to be in getting things right both on and off the field.

Last Sunday’s thrashing for the team at Halifax was not encouraging.

But to suggest that it had anything to do with goings-on in the Boardroom would be wide of the mark.

To his credit, the new man in the hot seat, chairman Gordon Grace, had already cleared the air, assuring the players they need not worry on the pay front.

There had been a few rumblings, but coach Paul Crarey told me: “It was made clear there would be no problems financially for the players, so now we have to honour our part of the bargain and deliver.”

The side’s performance at Halifax 48 hours later could be described as dishonourable.

Crarey was bluntly honest in his admission that “we were absolutely shocking.”

So what next? How about ‘expansive rugby’ being declared taboo in training this week and replaced by the two D’s – defensive and discipline – in preparation for the Rail Cup visit of Workington Town.

“I look at myself first when anything goes wrong,” says Crarey, “but we need to go back to basics, even if it means going backwards a little bit to go forward.

“We have to show signs of what we’re trying to do and under pressure at Halifax last Sunday we showed no signs at all.”

A little reality check perhaps, but the fact is that this was an acid test and the team came up well short as the best laid plans to close down Graham Holroyd failed abjectly. Hardly a hand was laid upon the maestro.

Paul Crarey will also be wondering whether he’s asked his new charges to adapt too quickly to a new style and given them too much of a free role too soon.

The players themselves will have to give the answer this Sunday when the old enemy come to town; I fear Workington could feel a backlash although Dave Rotheram doesn’t seem too afraid and looks to close the gap further.

“We need to up our game and get some credibility back,” says Crarey.

“A week is a long time in rugby league” – well he has to be philosophical about these things.

Mr Grace is giving himself 12 months to play the lead role in getting things right and, as a retired Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy, he knows what it takes to keep a ship afloat.

Not for one moment am I suggesting he’s boarded a sinking ship; Whitehaven have not fallen into the Widnes boat and certainly there’s no criticism of a Board who, over the last three or four years, has done its very best to compete on a far from level playing field against bigger clubs with greater financial resources.

If the new-look Board does manage to turn it around in 12 months, then the chairman will be Mr Amazing Grace: “I’m well used to all the puns by now, but I’ll be so pleased if we achieve what we are setting out to do I will sing it for you,” he promised.