Eynesbury Rovers miss out on promotion this season

EYNESBURY ROVERS will not be promoted to the UCL Premier Division this season despite their win 3-1 over Olney Town at Hall Road on Saturday. Rovers sit fifth in the table and 10 points adrift of second placed Deventry United with just three games remaini

EYNESBURY ROVERS will not be promoted to the UCL Premier Division this season despite their win 3-1 over Olney Town at Hall Road on Saturday.

Rovers sit fifth in the table and 10 points adrift of second placed Deventry United with just three games remaining. Co-manager Al Lenihan said he was "a bit gutted" to miss out on promotion in his debut managerial season at the club.

"We had three losses on the bounce and we can't be promoted now but realistically I don't think we're ready for it anyway. It would be a big step up for us so we need to be ready for the burden.

"We lost some games but it's the nine draws that cost us as we should have won four of them and got an extra six points and we should've had three extra points from when we beat Olney away. It's not so much that the lads aren't performing it's the luck factor and we haven't had any and we've dropped silly points. When you dominate a game and they score a winner or equaliser in the 93rd minute it takes the stuffing out of you.

"If we had gone into the close season with 11 more points we would be right up there competing and the three losses wouldn't have mattered. We were disappointed to get the points docked after we beat Olney [for fielding an ineligible player] because he only played for seven minutes and if I'd know what would happen I wouldn't have put him on.

"We have taken a giant step forward this season so it has not been disastrous but I do see not getting promoted as failure. To get where we are when we haven't got a big budget to bring in these ex-Premier League players like some teams do and to achieve what we have done is great."

Eynesbury Rovers next host Rushden and Higham United on Saturday.