Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling has challenged his side to maintain their unbeaten Thurlow Nunn League First Division North unbeaten tag

Boss Ben Cowling has challenged his Haverhill Rovers side to maintain their unbeaten tag in the Thurlow Nunn League First Division North for a ‘point of personal pride’.

The New Croft outfit climbed to the top of the standings following their 4-0 victory at home to bottom-of-the-table Whittlesey Athletic on Saturday which took their record to nine wins, two draws and zero defeats.

There have been moments when the losses column has threatened to tick over to one – second-half stoppage-time equalisers against Framlingham Town and Diss Town keeping their record intact. But Rovers have shown character and a never-say-die attitude to remain undefeated while blowing teams away with their quality on other occasions.

“We’re happy with the start, we’ve been good at times, we’ve shown some real character and got ourselves out of some tricky predicaments,” said Cowling.

“The good thing is, I think we’re still improving. As the group gets to know each other, as we get players back from injury and being away over the next few weeks, we should be in really good shape.

“The desire not to be beaten is good, the points tally would look very different if we hadn’t kept on going and kept believing in what we we’re trying to achieve.

“We’re the only side in all the senior Thurlow Nunn Leagues unbeaten and we want to hold onto that for as long as we possibly can.

“It’s great having that zero against the losses and that’s a point of personal pride for the players now to see how far we can take that.”

Rovers have shared goals among 16 different scorers across all competitions so far this campaign, which has pleased Cowling, and the man who leads the way in the scoring charts is summer arrival, and new captain, Shaun Avis.

The former Thetford Town and Lakenheath man has netted 11 times in 15 appearances but is closely followed by fellow summer signing Luke Lindsay and Ryan Twinn, who have both scored eight goals.

Cowling has also been impressed with the impacts of arrivals Jake Noble – who joined last month from Stansted – Ryan Taylor and Archie Cowe.

“I think part of the recruitment process was that we specifically went for experienced players in the main, not exclusively, but we did that because we want people that want to thrive on the expectation,” said the Rovers boss.

“It’s great to have competition in the squad and if someone’s not performing for a game or two, then we’ve got people who will come in and keep the levels of the group high.

“It was important with these first set of games that we didn’t take too much damage, we’ve avoided that. What we’ve done is given ourselves a platform.

“It’s quite clear what our objectives are as a club and we’ve taken a step down the road on that.

“Nothing’s done yet, Harwich (4th) are ahead of us on points-per-game at the minute, Framlingham aren’t too far behind, Stanway (2nd) are still in there.”

The New Croft club’s quest to stretch their unbeaten record resumes tomorrow when they host ninth-placed Holbeach United (3pm), who are yet to lose away from home this campaign.

Cowling has ‘concerns’ over a few players’ fitness for the fixture, in Noble (ankle) and Avis (head), but will be bolstered by the returns of Clarke, Twinn and Cowe.