Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling embarrassed after FC Peterborough postponement

Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling labelled the postponement of his side’s trip to FC Peterborough on Saturday as ‘embarrassing’ for himself and the club.

Rovers released a statement on Saturday morning which confirmed they were unable to fulfil the Thurlow Nunn League First Division North fixture as they did not have ‘enough players available’.

The New Croft outfit have had to play a lot of their under-18s due to injuries in recent weeks, and Cowling revealed some players were in county action, which created an ‘untenable situation’.

Rovers have been hit with a £500 fine for the call-off and the game has been rearranged to take place on Saturday, May 4, extending both clubs’ seasons.

“It’s not something that has ever happened to me in 17 years of management and we did everything that we possibly could to get the game on,” said the Rovers boss.

“We were at the point where we were asking injured players to play, to potentially put themselves out for months, and we simply can’t do that.

“Ultimately, this comes back to things that happened last summer under a previous regime.

“Ryan Churcher (chairman) has come in and done brilliantly, but we can’t correct what’s been done before. The fact we have no reserves, no under-23s and the only pool of available players we have is the under-18s. Not many of those players come from Haverhill either and it makes life extremely challenging.

“It’s horrible, it’s embarrassing for me, it’s embarrassing for the club, no-one wants to be in this situation.”

Cowling stated that the structure of the club is going to be ‘huge’ next season and plans are already in place to make sure they will be better equipped if a situation similar to the weekend arises again.

Rovers have applied for an under-23s team to be in the Thurlow Nunn League Under 23 Division (formerly reserves) next term and also a reserve side to enter a division in the Cambridgeshire County League. And Cowling confirmed management and player groups are in place for both teams.

However, Rovers – who currently sit 10th in the First Division North table – were able to field a side for their trip to struggling Leiston Under-23s last night, where Cowling’s men picked up a 1-0 victory.

Ryan Weaver’s penalty after 22 minutes was enough to settle the contest ahead of the visit of 15th-placed Norwich CBS tomorrow (3pm).

“I came into this role with my eyes wide open, I’ve known exactly what’s happened, I knew the position the club was in and I knew it was going to be challenging,” said Cowling.

“But we’ve got a very good core of senior players at the club that want to be at the club next year, that are all capable of going out and winning this division.

“Nobody wants this season to go out with a whimper because there’s been some real positivity in turning around what was a club very much at its lowest point in it’s history.”