Preseason 2022 - 2023
Haverhill have announced a new kit sponsor. The one year sponsorship deal is set to be worth £4.4k. The clubs previous sponsorship deal was worth £2k per annum.
Haverhill have released a list of players that have been released from their amateur contracts.
22 Year Old Defender Nathan Baker (0 appearances)
21 Year Old Goalkeeper Jacob Cook (0 appearances)
21 Year Old Defender Callum Owen (0 appearances)
19 Year Old Defender Nicky Garner (0 appearances)
21 Year Old Defender Brendan McCarthy (0 appearances)
21 Year Old Midfielder Paul Aitken (7 appearances)
21 Year Old Midfielder Steve Thompson (2 appearances)
Haverhill release 11 youth players who failed to earn contracts.
Friendly
Felixstowe & Walton United 1 V 5 Haverhill Rovers
Goals United;
Jack Ainsley pen 37”
Rovers Goals;
Scott Belgrove 9”, 13”, 34”
Cameron Painter 71”
Barry Hall 86”
Haverhill have signed 21 year old Left Midfielder Luke Hall on a free transfer from Newmarket. Hall has signed a 1 year part time contract worth £375 p/w. Hall has made 72 league appearances so far in his career, scoring 17 goals, supplying 17 assists, winning 8 man of the Match awards with an average rating of 7.07
Friendly
Haverhill Rovers 4 V 2 Kingstonian
Goals Rovers;
Jack Renew 5”
Louis Peacock 22”, 90+2”
Daniel Neil 89”
Goals Kingstonian;
Terry Gilbey 69”
Trystan Jones 90+5”
Attendance 85 (13 away)
Jack Renew suffered a hamstring strain during the match and will be out for 4-5 weeks.
Haverhill have announced the collective squad win bonus’s for the season. As a result of the agreement a total of £2.1k to be shared amongst the squad if they win the Isthmian D1N.
The collective bonus for cup competitions will award players £9k to be shared amongst the squad if they win a cup. Should the team fail to win a competition the bonus’s will be scaled down depending on the position.
Haverhill’s under 23 manager Brian Burton has been appointed manager of Crawley Green.
Steve Rands: Burton joined us in January 2019 and has helped bring through some of our talented youngsters. He wish him all the success in the world and hope he does us proud.
Haverhill manager Steve Rands has started work on his Continental A Licence. Haverhill will be covering the £3k fee for the course.
Friendly
Team News
Jack Renew Out (Hamstring Strain)
Haverhill Rovers 1 V 4 Halesowen Town
Goals Rovers;
Matthew Bell 84”
Goals Town;
Scott Balfour 15”, 18”, pen 37”
Joe England 87”
Attendance 79 (10 away)
Haverhill have signed 19 year old defender Joe Greengrass on a free transfer after he impressed whilst on trial. Greengrass has signed a 1 year part time contract worth £60 p/w. He has made 2 league appearances in his career so far with an average rating of 6.30
Haverhill have signed 26 year old defender Harry Hickford on a free transfer after he impressed whilst on trial. Hickford has signed non-contract agreement. He has made 148 league appearances so far in his career, scoring 4 goals, supplying 2 assists, winning 2 man of the Match awards with an average rating of 6.61
Friendly
Team News
Jack Renew Out (Hamstring Strain)
Haverhill Rovers 0 V 2 FC Halifax Town
Goals Town;
Daryl Southwell pen 45”, 83”
Attendance 137 (27 away)
Ashley Birch has sustained a twisted knee as a result of a tackle he made and will be out for 2-4 days.
Friendly
Team News
Ashley Birch Doubtful (Twisted Knee)
Jack Renew Out (Hamstring Strain)
Haverhill Rovers 4 V 0 Newmarket Town
Rovers Goals;
Scott Belgrove 28”
Daniel Neil 44”, 89”
Levi Wall 90+2”
Attendance 123 (44 away)
Daniel Akinwunmi has sustained a gashed lower leg as a result of a tackle and will be out for 12 days – 2 weeks.
Haverhill have signed 26 year old midfielder Charlie Harris on a free transfer after he impressed whilst on trial. Harris has signed a non-contract agreement. He has made 136 league appearances so far in his career, scoring 16 goals, supplying 10 assists, winning 1 man of the match award with an average rating of 6.63
Friendly
Team News
Daniel Akinwunmi Out (Gashed Lower Leg)
Jack Renew Doubtful (Hamstring Strain)
Hanwell Town 2 V 2 Haverhill Rovers
Goals Town;
Louis Bircham 13”
Ian Johnson 86”
Goals Rovers;
Taylor Rees 65”
Alieu Njie 88”
Friendly
Team News
Daniel Akinwunmi Out (Gashed Lower Leg)
Jack Renew Doubtful (Hamstring Strain)
Haverhill Rovers 1 V 1 Bath City
Goals Rovers;
Louis Peacock 53”
Attendance 110 (28 away)
Mike Atkinson has sustained a twisted ankle whilst making a tackle and will be out for 5-7 weeks.
Haverhill have appointed Jamie De Cruz as Under 23 Manager. He has previously worked as the Under 18 Manager at Sutton Common.
Friendly
Team News
Daniel Akinwunmi Out (Gashed Lower Leg)
Mike Atkinson Out (Twisted Ankle)
Jack Renew Doubtful (Hamstring Strain)
Norwich Utd 2 V 2 Haverhill Rovers
Goals Utd;
Nick Allinson 68”, 83”
Goals Rovers;
Luke Hall 36”
Nathan Cosgrave 37”
Isthmian North Division Promotion Odds
With the bookmakers believing promotion to be unlikely for Haverhill, their price of 70-1 seems to point more to the fact that they should be more concerned with avoiding relegation. With odds priced at evens for Haverhill to go down, it seems that the bookmakers are expecting them to struggle against relegation come the end of the season due to the step up in class of opposition.
Friendly
Team News
Mike Atkinson Out (Twisted Ankle)
Daniel Akinwunmi Doubtful (Gashed Lower Leg)
Jack Renew Doubtful (Hamstring Strain)
Flackwell Heath 3 V 2 Haverhill Rovers
Goals Heath;
Greg Hall 1”, 15”
Graham Dovey 67”
Goals Rovers;
Daniel Neil 48”, 90+1”
Haverhill have signed 22 year old midfielder Bivesh Gurung on a free transfer from Oadby. Gurung has signed a 3 year part time contract worth £275 p/w. He previously played for Haverhill in 2019 and has made 98 league appearances so far in his career, scoring 7 goals, supplying 24 assists, winning 2 man of the Match awards with an average rating of 6.72
Friendly
Team News
Mike Atkinson Out (Twisted Ankle)
Haverhill Rovers 2 V 7 Hemel Hempstead Town
Goals Rovers;
Charlie Harris 77”
Daniel Neil 86”
Goals Town;
Abobaker Eisa pen 26”
Tom Powell 31”
Joel Mills 50”
Olaolu Odipe 54”
Danny Waldren 70”
Aaron Heap 85”
Jake Kelly 90+1”
Attendance 90 (20 away)
Haverhill have announced the club captain and vice captain will stay the same as last season and that is Haverhill’s record appearance holder Goalkeeper Charlie Crowley and Left Midfielder Sam Cole.
Competitions Expectations
Isthmian North Division – Avoid a relegation battle
FA Cup – Reach First Qualifying Round
Isthmian League Cup – Reach Preliminary Round
Steve Rands:
A mixed preseason with the most matches we have ever played in a preseason but I wanted to make sure our fitness was on point for the start of the season whilst also earning the club some money.
Some good results against higher opposition and some not so good results but we are building and the squad is pretty much unchanged from last season apart from a few signings. I am delighted to welcome back Bivesh Gurung and I feel it was a big coup for us to get him back. This season will be a big step up in class but I feel the squad we have is capable of exceeding the board expectations and consolidate our position in this Division this season.
We have a couple of youngsters that have really impressed in preseason, none more so than Daniel Neil who is pushing for a first team place. We have some talented players coming through the youth team and I hope we will see them achieve what Shane Cambridge achieved last season and that is cementing a first team place.