Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling feels side dropped two points at home to Swaffham Town

Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling felt his side ‘dropped’ two points but ‘saved’ one after their dramatic 4-4 draw at home to struggling Swaffham Town on Saturday.

The New Croft outfit were left ruing what could have been as they stormed to a 3-0 lead after a quarter of an hour played, courtesy of a 15-minute hat-trick from Tom Debenham.

But the 17th-placed visitors stunned Rovers and turned the game on its head, and by the hour mark they led 4-3 thanks to braces from Kelvin Ibeneme and Chez Rust.

Debenham came up trumps for Rovers again and equalised with five minutes left to play to leave Rovers 14th in the Thurlow Nunn League First Division North table.

“Effectively, we switched off,” said Cowling.

“We didn’t work hard enough, we played in the wrong areas, we gave away too many free kicks and fair play to Swaffham, they scored a couple of really good goals.

“It’s frustration. As well as Swaffham have done, we shouldn’t be letting any team back in with three goals at that stage. It’s two points dropped, but one point saved.

“I think the players do deserve some credit for making sure we picked something out of the game and ultimately we had some really good opportunities to win it after we equalised as well.”

Debenham has recorded goals in back-to-back games after he failed to find the back of the net in the three matches before and he took his tally to 15 for the season at the weekend.

Cowling felt his target man was a ‘constant threat’ throughout the thrilling draw.

“Tom’s done well we all know what he’s able to do. He’s suffered with injuries a lot and we had the opportunity to give him minutes,” he said.

“He’s benefited and his body has stayed in one piece which is good for him, so it’s really nice to see him reap the rewards and get the goals that he has.”

Meanwhile, defender Sam Hawley was left out of the squad that faced Swaffham on Saturday.

Rovers are still awaiting guidance and advice from the FA on what they should do next after the 29-year-old was prohibited from teaching indefinitely. A hearing held by a Teaching Regulation Agency panel found him to be ‘guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute’ for his interactions with a female pupil.

After their fixture at home to Cornard United was postponed on Tuesday night, Cowling’s side will look ahead to Saturday’s visit of fourth-placed Holland FC (3pm).

“Holland are on a great run of form, they had a very surprise loss on Saturday and I’m sure they’ll want to bounce back after that,” said the Rovers boss.

“They’ve got some excellent players in there that have played at a high level, but it’s at our pitch. We’ve got to show some character, believe in what we do and what we do really well.

“As a collective, I’d hope we’d want to bounce back a little bit after Saturday as well.”

Meanwhile, Haverhill Rovers Under-18s are in action away to Stowmarket Town in the quarter-final of the Veo Suffolk Under-18 Midweek Cup tonight, with the winner to face either Walsham-le-Willows or Lowestoft Town in the last four.