Haverhill Rovers manager Ben Cowling says still work to do to win Thurlow Nunn League First Division title despite beating challengers Stanway Pegasus 2-0

Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling is playing it cool despite taking another big step towards the title on Saturday.

Rovers beat Stanway Pegasus, who started the day second in the Thurlow Nunn League First Division North, 2-0 at The New Croft to move 15 points clear of nearest challenges Harwich & Parkeston, who have two games in hand.

“We’re in a great position and we know we’re in a great position,” admitted Cowling, whose team have just 11 league games left. “But it’s not done and dusted.

“Harwich are a very good team, it will take four defeats from us because we’re effectively nine points clear of them so we’d need to lose four and we’ve only lost once all season – we’re aware of that.

“But this is football, I’ve seen teams fall away from this position before.

“I think the group dynamic and desire within it is to get over 100 points. We don’t want to drop points, we want to have the best defence, we want the best goal difference, we want to set records, and to do that we need to turn up and perform every week.

“Stanway and Harwich have got to play each other again, we’ve taken six points off Stanway and four points off Harwich. I think Harwich are the best team we’ve played in the division.

“We’ve got some tricky games to go, we’ve got to go to Framlingham and FC Peterborough who are both in the top six and both gave us very good games at our place. We’ve got Diss Town who are fifth at home and a local derby to negotiate in a couple of weeks.”

While there’s plenty of work still to do, completing the double over Stanway without conceding a goal does seem to be a pivotal point in the campaign.

Tom Head opened the scoring early in the second half before an own goal with 15 minutes left ended the game as a contest.

“In the build-up they’d intimated how important it was,” added Cowling. “It was a must-win for Stanway and more of a really don’t want to lose for us in terms of the context and where we are.

“They started the game very quickly and had the best of the first half overall, although we created the best chances they had more of the ball.

“In the second half, I thought we were outstanding, we restricted them. Alex Archer made one very good save and beyond that his handling was superb in goal.

“Once we got ahead there was only going to be one team that was going to win it, and once we got the second goal, they lost their heads a little bit.”

Rovers visit Whittlesey Athletic, who have improved since losing the reverse fixture 4-0 at the end of September.

“Whittlesey are very different to when we played them back then,” said Cowling. “They’ve won seven out of the last eight in the league at home so it’s going to be a different challenge for us and one we need to overcome.”

Rovers handed a debut to Jarid Robson against Stanway, the attacking midfielder has joined on a dual-registration basis from Mildenhall. It’s a deal that works for all parties.

“Jarid lives in the town, he’s a Haverhill boy,” explained Cowling. “He’s played for Borough before but never played senior for Rovers.

“He’s at Mildenhall, two levels above us, and picked up a nasty injury in the autumn. He came back at Christmas and made three or four substitute appearances. I spoke to Phil Weavers, the Mildenhall manager, last Thursday and he wanted to get Jarid out to get him some good minutes.

“They don’t have a reserve team, so they wanted to do a dual-reg deal and they did something similar by bringing a lad in from Spalding.

“It’s quite convenient as we’ve got a few people away this Saturday and a few away in three weeks’ time so for Jarid to come for a block of games to get some minutes covers that.

“Most of the players know him well, he adds something different to the group so it should be a win-win for all three parties.”