Promoted Felixstowe & Walton United complete their season at Haverhill Rovers this weekend, and with it say goodbye to the Thurlow Nunn League, where they have played their football for the last 44 years.
Tuesday night’s game at home to Coggeshall proved to be the title decider with the Seedgrowers taking the honours, while the Seasiders had to settle for runners-up spot for the second season running.
The Felixstowe management will be hoping their side have recovered mentally after an emotional evening that saw the club break the league attendance record in the modern era – more than 1,500 fans watched on – but lose to the newly crowned champions, and they will not want to leave the league on the back of two defeats.
Home side Haverhill Rovers have not been in the best of form over the last two months with just one win in eight outings, and that against basement club Wivenhoe Town, and their results are reflected in their league position which has seen them slip down to 18th place, conceding 78 goals, 36 of them at the New Croft where they have lost nine times already this season.
The sides shared the points at the Goldstar Ground two days before Christmas, and they are one of the sides the Seasiders have always found difficult to overcome.
Rovers manager Marc Abbott, who was appointed shortly before that fixture in December, has been busy reshaping his side and it is still a work in progress, but they will be keen to take the scalp of the league runners-up.
How much Tuesday’s defeat took out of the Seasiders is difficult to judge – there was the disappointment of their title bid ending, but the euphoria of promotion to Step 4 on an emotional evening in front of a huge crowd too.
The management duo of Kevin O’Donnell and Ian Watson will have been busy trying to make sure the side have refocused for this final game of the season.
The runners-up shield the club won last year and retained this season will be presented to the side after the game at the New Croft.
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