- Hughes (48')
Haverfordwest County AFC manager Tony Pennock felt we probably didn’t deserve to take much from our meeting with Flint Town United at Essity Stadium yesterday, which ended 1-0 in favour of the Silkmen.
The Bluebirds were on top for much of the first half, but a goal shortly after the restart from Ben Hughes proved to be the difference as the north Walians took the spoils on a frustrating afternoon.
County had their moments and could well have left with more to show for their efforts on a different day, however the hosts were impressive throughout and couldn’t be denied their victory.
Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:
On the performance
It was our eighth game of the season, including cup games, and that’s by far our worst performance. The boys have been fantastic all through pre-season and the start of the season, so maybe that’s a blip. I thought we had a 20, 25-minute spell in the first half where we were very good and created a few chances. Sheppy nearly scored, got cleared off the line and there were some really good patterns of play. But then we went a bit too direct too quick when we had space to play, and in the second half we huffed and puffed and had opportunities, put the ball in the box but we just didn’t get on the end of anything really. It’s a poor goal to concede. We just gave Flint the goal to hang on to and they did it well in fairness to them.
On not taking our chances
When you’re on top, and as much as we were for that 25-minute spell, you need to capitalise on it, and we didn’t. There was good defending by them, and a couple of opportunities where we made the wrong decision in the final third. Like I say, Sheppy’s opportunity would have been a great goal, but it gets cleared off the line. But all in all, we probably didn’t deserve much from today. We could have got a draw out of it if we nicked something late on, but you’ve got to give Flint credit where credit’s due. They worked extremely hard, caused us problems on the counter-attack and on the break with the pace they’ve got up front, and with the long throws as well. It’s just one of those days. We have to dust ourselves down and work hard this week. Obviously we’ve got a cup game and then Aberystwyth Friday, and we just have to be ready for two tough tests this week.
On the opponents
I’ve seen Flint play twice this year and they lost both games by one goal. They were certainly in both of them. I saw them against Cardiff Met, they lost 2-1, but they had opportunities in the second half to get back in the game and away at Barry where they were 2-0 up, and another goal before half time and they would have been in total control, but Barry came out second half and dominated that 45 minutes. So I knew Flint were a good side, a good footballing team. They’re a team that got promoted last year, so they’ve played together, they know the way they play, and Fowls [Lee Fowler] has got them playing good football in fairness. Like I said, sometimes you don’t get what you deserve, but I don’t think we deserved to get much today.
On rotation for Tuesday night
Some of the boys haven’t had many minutes in the league games because we’ve been playing that well, so it’s an opportunity for those who haven’t had a lot of minutes to play on Tuesday night. Obviously we’ve got Aberystwyth then on Friday, so Tuesday to Friday’s a quick turnaround. Saturday, Tuesday, Friday. Aberystwyth have got the same, they played last night, they’re playing in the cup on Tuesday as well, so it’s the same for them, but there’ll be a few lads getting opportunities on Tuesday that haven’t had much this season as of yet.
On our next league game
There’s no easy games in this division, especially away from home, and our history over recent years away at Aberystwyth shows us that. So first and foremost, we’ve got to see how the boys react after today, Tuesday night. Get through Tuesday night and then we’ll concentrate on Aberystwyth. But at the minute, my first thoughts are on analysing what went wrong today, because there’s plenty to look at, and then making sure that we’re right for Tuesday and for Friday night.
