Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling wants to see a response from Whittlesey Athletic defeat against Dussindale & Hellesdon Rovers
Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling wants to see a reaction from his side in tomorrow’s match at home to Dussindale & Hellesdon Rovers (3pm) after The New Croft outfit surrendered a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 against visiting Whittlesey Athletic in midweek.
The defeat to the Thurlow Nunn League’s 16th-placed side brought an end to Rovers’ eight-game unbeaten run to leave them sitting 10th in the table.
Milo Holmes scored a brace, his strikes coming either side of half-time, before Whittlesey netted three goals in 10 minutes to stun Cowling’s side.
“It was disappointing. We just didn’t play well at any point on Tuesday night,” admitted the Rovers boss.
“We didn’t have enough energy about us, we didn’t have enough control of the game. Whittlesey deserved their win. After being 2-0 up, it’s a little bit of a bitter pill to swallow.”
Rovers’ impressive run of form before Tuesday, which saw them taste defeat just twice in the league since November, made them an outsider to make a late push for the play-offs, but after the loss and Cornard’s victory at Swaffham Town in midweek, any hopes of a top-five spot were put to bed.
“Realistically, from the point we let a 4-2 lead slip against Swaffham a couple of weeks ago it was going to be very, very difficult to achieve,” said Cowling.
“We wanted to get ourselves up into a mid-table position, we managed to do that, to close the gap to the teams above us.
“We need to be finishing the season between sixth to eighth place in the table.
“We’ve got to make sure we have a reaction on Saturday and try and finish the season unbeaten from here.
“We’ve been doing it quietly. It was a long process trying to catch up with teams, and within that we’ve dropped some points that we really shouldn’t have done.”
A standout from their impressive catalogue of results in recent months is the 1-0 victory they picked up against third-placed Stanway Pegasus two weeks ago.
Eight under-16s players featured in that particular matchday squad and the Rovers boss has been delighted to see youth players step up when his squad has been ‘running on empty’.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries and a lot of people have left for varying reasons,” he said.
“They have been senior players, and it’s hard to replace them at this time of the season.
“So, we’ve given the opportunity to these young lads and they've grabbed the bull by the horns, and the senior players have embraced that and encouraged them.”
