Disappointed manager Mark Ducket has diagnosed his Eynesbury Rovers players as suffering from a serious Hunts Senior Cup final hangover.

Fourth-placed Rovers’ sparkling United Counties League Premier Division form has dipped drastically since they were beaten by higher-level St Ives Town in the county showpiece a couple of weeks ago.

Ducket’s men did win their next league fixture at top-six rivals Holbeach, but have managed to collect just one point from four subsequent matches.

Single-goal home defeats at the hands of Boston Town and Northampton Spencer sandwiched a lacklustre effort in a 1-1 derby draw at relegated Huntingdon. A 3-0 defeat at title-chasing AFC Kempston Rovers then followed on Tuesday night.

Ducket admitted: “The performances we have produced lately have summed up why I didn’t initially want to stay in the game after retiring as a player.

“We’ve been flat, we’ve lacked hunger, we’ve lacked enthusiasm and we’ve lacked any sort of spark.

“I feared that might happen after being beaten in the Hunts Senior Cup final and the backlog of fixtures means we haven’t had the opportunity to get the lads on the training pitch to put things right.

“We were also without a couple of the leaders in our group – Tom Coles and Darren Woodend – for the Huntingdon and Spencer games which didn’t help.

“We missed them massively, and we’re also missing goalkeeper Ollie Sutton since he decided to step up to join Corby.

“I’ve involved up to five lads from the Under 21 side in recent games, but it has showed they are not all ready for UCL football at this stage.

“It just confirms that despite the progress we have made, there is a big job for myself and my coaches, Ben Watts and Ash Civil, to do in the summer.”

Eynesbury can still have a say in the destination of the Premier Division title.

They complete their campaign by hosting Leicester Nirvana at Hall Road tomorrow, 3pm when a ‘pay what you want’ admission policy is in operation.

Nirvana are locked together with Kempston in the battle for the championship. Both teams have 94 points but Nirvana possess a better goal difference.

Meanwhile Eynesbury still have work of their own to do to nail down fourth spot.