Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling wants side to build on results against Diss Town, AFC Sudbury Reserves and Wivenhoe Town

Haverhill Rovers boss Ben Cowling stated that his side have to use their three-match winning streak in the Thurlow Nunn League First Division North as a ‘platform’ to push towards the top half of the table in the second half of the season.

Rovers followed up their 2-1 victory at home to Diss Town with a 2-0 win on Boxing Day away at play-off chasing AFC Sudbury Reserves courtesy of goals from Ryan Weaver and Tom Debenham.

Debenham was then on hand to net a brace on Saturday in The New Croft outfit’s 3-1 win at home against Wivenhoe Town, which also saw Ryan Twinn get in on the act.

“That’s what we need for the rest of the season now,” admitted Cowling.

“We have to use this as a platform, we have to use this as a base to initially get ourselves into the top half and then just keep winning games of football.

“I think the fact we’ve been able to have big players missing and been able to cope with that (has been the most pleasing thing).

“We had Sam Hawley suspended on Boxing Day and then had Casey Philips and Ryan Geoghegan drop out and Charlie Davies unavailable for the Wivenhoe game and we’ve done really well.

“With that, we’ve had Oliver Reynolds step up from the under-18s and he’s started the last two games as a centre-half. He’s played 90 minutes in both of those and the lad is 16-years-old. He’s done terrifically well.”

Cowling admitted players stepping up has given him ‘selection issues’ but one man who is firmly on the team-sheet is Debenham.

The midfielder has scored five goals across Rovers’ three-match winning run and seems to be replicating the form of top-scorer Joe Greenslade-Cross, who moved to Premier Division outfit Soham Town Rangers before Christmas.

“Tom probably didn’t play as much as he wanted to last year, certainly not this season at Lakenheath for whatever reasons, and before that he had been struggling with back problems for a long time,” said Cowling.

“Part of the reason he was coming to us was because of the opportunity to get good game-time.

“That’s been noticed and Tom has had approaches in for him from higher-placed clubs that he has turned down.

“Hopefully he’s happy, we’re certainly enjoying having him here and I think he can continue to do what he’s doing. His ability to bring others into play, as well as the goals, is really important to us.”

The departure of Greenslade-Cross came after the winger had netted 19 times for Rovers in 20 games in all competitions this season and he has started his Soham career in a similar vain of form – finding the back of the net three times in as many matches.

“From our point of view, we got the approach from Soham. I don’t know how much they knew about Joe initially but it’s one of those,” said Cowling.

“Joe had done very well for us this season. He’s still got some learning and improving to do but his goal record speaks for itself.

“If you’re looking where Haverhill Rovers are in the table and you’ve got a lad there that scores 19 or 20 goals, I’m surprised there weren’t more clubs coming in for him.

“He seems to have got off at a good start at Soham. It was always going to be a bit of a risk as this is the first opportunity he has really had to have a consistent run of playing first-team football. Hopefully it works out for him.

“Obviously for us, we got the couple of wins on the bounce which is nice as a result.

“I don’t think scoring goals has been an issue for us all season. It gives others an opportunity to step up and we’ll try and look to see if we can get someone in to fill that gap.”

Rovers, 15th in the table, travel to second-from-bottom Whitton United tomorrow (3pm) looking to make it four consecutive victories in the league.