Haverhill Rovers manager Ben Cowling on Thurlow Nunn League First Division North derby against Haverhill Borough at New Croft tonight

Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling has warned his players to keep their cool as they prepare for tonight’s New Croft derby.

Leaders Rovers host lowly Haverhill Borough (7.45pm) in the Thurlow Nunn League First Division North with 54 points separating them.

But the first clash between the sides proved a close affair, 10-man Rovers just edging a 2-1 victory, and Cowling knows they can’t leave anything to chance.

“We've just got to make sure that we stop Borough playing and play on our terms, which is not what happened in the first game,” said Cowling.

“What we don't want to do is introduce any variables. We've both got 11 men on the pitch.

“It doesn't take a genius to work out that we should win 99 times out of 100, given where both groups are in the league table. But that's the draw of the derby, all of that does go out the window a little bit.

“It is up to us. We've got senior players and there's expectations on them both in terms of cards and referees, and also just in terms of our shape and how we want to play.

“We shouldn't get involved in the emotion of it. It's another game for us. It's another one to chalk off.

“We need seven wins to go up as champions and this is a great opportunity to go and get one of those chalked off.”

Despite Borough’s struggles this season - they are five points from safety with 11 games left - Cowling won’t be taking their opponents lightly.

They’re familiar faces to many and the first game only served as a warning to Rovers.

“We’re fighting to win the league and move on upwards, and Borough are fighting to stay in the league,” added Cowling.

“We know from the first game that Borough played very well so I'm expecting them to raise their levels without question.

“There's some very good young players within that group that try and play good football. We've just got to make sure that we have better control on the game.

“Borough tactically were very good on the night. It caused us a lot of problems. We had some self-inflicted problems with a sending off that gave us some issues.

“They've got some young lads. The majority of that group is effectively our under-18s team as well and they had a couple of new lads play for them last Saturday.”

The game will hopefully see a big crowd in attendance, taking advantage of the decision to again move the derby to Friday night.

“It would be lovely for the people of Haverhill,” said Cowling. “What an opportunity to come out and watch the next generation of talent coming through with our under-18s playing for Borough and the current team which is on course to be the most successful team for many years at the club.

“It would be lovely to get a good crowd up there and hopefully it won't be too cold!

“More importantly, if we can put on a performance that means 20 or 30 of those people want to come back every week and we can start building our home attendances.

“We've got a winning team, we play some good football and score lots of goals so you'd hope that the local Haverhill football-watching public want to come out and see their team.”

Rovers won 2-0 at Whittlesey Athletic last Saturday with goals in either half by Jarid Robson and substitute Luke Lindsay.

“It's nice that we went ahead quite early,” said Cowling. It was essentially a banana skin as they've been in good form at home.

“But we’ve kept a fifth clean sheet on the bounce and scored at good times without probably ever being at our best.”