Marc Benterman on using 38 players in his 10 games in charge of Haverhill Rovers so far
Marc Benterman believes he now has the squad that can take Haverhill Rovers to safety in the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division.
The Rovers boss has used close to 40 players in his 10 games since taking charge at the JR Crane Services Hub, The New Croft, in late October last year.
On Saturday, Benterman handed debuts to his two latest signings, teenage goalkeeper Jaime Tedaldi, on loan from Colchester United, and defender Lewis Soraf, who has joined from higher-league Coggeshall Town.
The pair helped to hold off runaway Premier Division leaders Thetford Town up until 79 minutes, when an equaliser from the league’s top goalscorer Dan Gilchrist cancelled out Oli Bell’s opener two minutes earlier.
And there was late heartache for Rovers when Elliot Smith struck the winner for visiting Thetford in added time, which left Benterman’s side still 12 points adrift of safety and at the bottom of the table.
“It was a fantastic game played in the right spirit,” said Benterman, reflecting on the weekend’s 2-1 defeat to Thetford, which was switched to the 3G surface at The New Croft.
“It was a fantastic advert for the level of football. I thought we were absolutely incredible on the day.
“Unfortunately, our midfielder that’s tracked every single runner in the game has let one slip in the 92nd minute and he’s let him go and he’s scored.
“I’m gutted for the boys and I’m also gutted for the club as well. We can’t do any more than what we’re doing now.
“We’ve got to get some wins. We’ve got 15 games to go. If we can keep this squad together I think we’ve got every chance of achieving our objective.
“It probably seems to a lot of people like there’s been a lot of changes and there has been.
“We have to because we find ourselves in a situation we’ve got to get ourselves out of, and without a pre-season and without any friendlies.
“We’re literally giving people a game to see if they can strengthen us and if not we’ve got to find another alternative.
“But I think we’ve found the squad now. People that watched on Saturday saw us run Thetford close and it was probably their toughest challenge of the year. It shows we’ve got a very good squad and now we need to stick together for 15 games.
“Hopefully a bit of luck and a bit of fortune will come now and we’ll see what we can achieve.”
Rovers are at home again in the Premier Division this weekend with eighth-placed Long Melford set to visit on Saturday (3pm).
Melford are the last side Rovers have beaten at The New Croft, in their final home game of the 2021/22 season, with the club’s home record this term currently reading as P11 W0 D3 L8.
“We’ve got to get wins on the board,” Benterman said. “We know that. There’s no hiding place.
“We need to get wins now and once we get one win I think we’ll go on a hell of a run.”
