Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling wants side to ‘build on’ victory over Haverhill Borough at The New Croft
Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling has stated he wants his side to ‘build on’ their 4-0 dispatching of local rivals Haverhill Borough on Friday night as they enter a ‘big test’ in the upcoming weeks.
The Haverhill derby was settled by three goals in three minutes at the end of the first half as Ryan Twinn, Tom Debenham and Callum Harrison gave Rovers an unassailable lead heading into the break.
Twinn then bagged his second, 12 minutes after the restart, to put the game beyond any doubt and move Cowling’s side up three places, to 12th, in the table.
“It’s nice to get a clean sheet and nice to score some goals, which has been a little bit of a problem area for us over the past few weeks, and the front three all scored which is good,” said the Rovers boss.
“It was a solid performance. Being greedy, the chances we had in the second half, we should have extended that out but 4-0, it was a job done and we can move forward and look to the next couple of games.
“It was important to start getting three points again, but we’ve now got to go and build on that in the next two games.”
Cowling has reiterated on a number of occasions that his side should be much higher in the Thurlow Nunn League First Division North table and, after they ended their three-game winless run against their New Croft neighbours, Rovers have a busy month ahead that could make or break their late play-off push.
In March, they will face eight games, six of those coming against teams who currently sit 14th or lower in the standings.
And their busy period gets under way on Tuesday, when they travel to third-from-bottom Whitton United (7.45pm) before hosting 17th-placed Swaffham Town four days later (3pm).
Cowling admitted that if Rovers are to come away with six points from those two matches, then ‘it will be interesting to see what the league table looks like’.
“It’s going to test our squad, we don’t have the biggest squad, we don’t have a lot of people we can call in, so that’s going to be a big test in itself,” he said.
“We want to break the top 10. We haven’t done that, so one step at a time. We want to be in the top 10, then we want to be in the top eight, anything beyond that, then we’ll see what happens.
“Whitton are greatly improved from where they were at the start of the season, they’ve got the ability to score goals, it’s a tough place to go.
“Swaffham have got games in hand and the league position is a little bit below where thy are at.”
Before the Haverhill derby on Friday night, Ryan Swallow announced his departure from the club on social media.
The attacking midfielder made 27 appearances in all competitions for Rovers this season, scoring three goals in the process.
“Ryan wanted some more game time, it wasn’t something we could guarantee him,” admitted Cowling.
“At his age, he felt he needs to be playing week in, week out. He goes with our best wishes, he’s been brilliant since we came in, very understanding and very patient.
“It was a little bit unfortunate but I think we parted on good terms and we wish him all the best.”