Haverhill Rovers manager pleased with come-from-behind FA Cup victory over Norwich United

Marc Abbott hailed the character of his Haverhill Rovers side – as well as the part The New Croft support played – during their come-from-behind Emirates FA Cup victory over Norwich United.

An own goal saw Rovers trail inside the first five minutes to their divisional rivals in the season opening extra preliminary round tie on Tuesday evening.

But Haverhill, featuring all three summer signings, rallied and struck back through captain Ben Bradley’s equaliser on the stroke of half-time before Ryan Gibbs’ thundering finish sealed their progress in the 78th minute.

“I thought overall we were the better team,” said player-manager Abbott. “We had to stay in the game at 1-0 and make sure we did not concede a second or third, which we did, and we scored a vitally good goal on 45 minutes. It was a great team goal.

“We had the momentum and in the second half I thought we were excellent and thought we managed the game well, scoring another brilliant goal through Ryan Gibbs, assisted by Ben Bradley.

“Overall I was really pleased with how we played as it was tough circumstances, having not played for so long.

“I thought the support showed to the boys was outstanding and massively helped to get the players over the line really.”

It sets up another home tie in the competition, with higher-league Wisbech Town a week on Saturday in the preliminary round (3pm).

But before that is the little matter of their opening two Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division fixtures, with a trip to FC Clacton on Saturday (3pm) followed by hosting Godmanchester Rovers on Tuesday (7.45pm).

And Abbott is set to rotate his squad to ensure they can avoid injury problems piling up.

“There are lots of games and to be honest it is a real tough start for us,” he said.

“We have just got to make sure we do the right things between games.

“We want to carry a big squad as we know there will be a lot of games and especially after four to five months of not playing.

“If we do not (rotate) I just think we will cause ourselves more trouble.

“I would be surprised if many clubs do not do that as well. We will see how people are doing at training.”