Haverfordwest County AFC manager Tony Pennock was very pleased with the overall performance of his side as the Bluebirds recorded a commanding 3-0 victory away at Aberystwyth Town on Friday evening.
Ricky Watts and Ben Ahmun were both on target for County, before an own goal from Seasiders defender Louis Bradford ended the contest.
The Town were in control right the way through the contest, and thoroughly deserved to come out on top and get back to winning ways.
Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:
On the result
Any time you score three goals away from home and keep a clean sheet, you’re going to be pleased, but I thought the boys were excellent tonight. We had opportunities in the first half, our final pass wasn’t quite there, or our cross wasn’t good enough, but once we tidied that up second half, I thought we were excellent, and it’s nice to score three goals and move on to Barry on Tuesday now.
On the performance
I thought we were much better tonight in terms of doing the basics well. We moved the ball really quickly, our control of the ball and the game was excellent, and as much as Aber defended really well first half, I thought if we carried on playing the way we did, just upped our quality a little bit, then the goals would come, and it was great to score the first two goals and be able to give people a rest and give opportunities for others to get on the pitch as well.
On the opponents
From watching Aberystwyth prior to tonight’s game, they have got strength in playing in behind. Johnny Evans will run in behind as he did tonight while he was on the pitch, and we know that’s a threat that Aber have got. We limited the opportunities where they could do that, turned over the ball and won it back quickly in the middle of the park. That put us on the front foot, and I think we were on the front foot for the majority of the game.
On the goals
Kyle [Kenniford], Harri [John], when they get in those little pockets in front of the defence, they’re able to find passes down the side of the centre halves. Kyle’s played well. It’s his first start tonight, which he’s deserved. We’ve got a lot of players who deserve to be on the pitch, but I can only pick 10 outfield players. I gave Kyle the opportunity tonight, and he’s taken it. He’s played really well. He’s broken a lot of play up for us. He’s kept the ball moving and the more he plays, the better he gets, and that’s the same for a lot of our youngsters. It was a good goal, and it’s great to see Wattsy making that run in behind, a good first touch and finishing it well before the keeper had an opportunity to move his feet.
On the strikers
I go on to the strikers quite often. They know I bore them with it and playing between the posts, but they’ll score more goals than being outside the post or being 15 yards outside the 18-yard box. Alaric played a couple of great balls on Tuesday night against Penybont and we didn’t quite get on the end of them, but tonight he’s put another one in an area and it’s down to the centre forwards to be there. He did that. We talked about it at half time, if we can just improve our quality of our crosses and Alaric’s ball was fantastic. Ben Ahmun will score double figures if those balls keep coming in the box for him, and the same will happen with Ben Fawcett and our other strikers.