Haverfordwest County AFC manager Tony Pennock was left frustrated after his side failed to take advantage of playing over an hour with an extra man in the 1-1 draw with Barry Town United at LHP Stadium on Tuesday night.

The Bluebirds fell behind when Ollie Hulbert found the net from inside the area, but the visitors lost Josh Yorwerth to a straight red card shortly after when the defender was adjudged to have prevented a clear goalscoring opportunity when he brought striker Ben Fawcett down.

As expected, the remainder of the contest was one-way traffic, but the Town lacked the quality needed in the final third against a Dragons side who defended for their lives and did enough to earn a point in Carmarthen.

Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:

On the result

It’s never easy against 10 men, but when you keep passing the ball out of play under no pressure and not putting balls in good areas for people to maybe get on to the end of them, then it makes it easy for Barry. But I’ve got to be honest, Barry defended really well and we let ourselves down with a lack of quality tonight.

Bluebirds frustrated by resolute 10-man Dragons as Town forced to settle for a point

Match Reports3 months ago

On the performance

We didn’t have many shots on goal either, in fairness, but to concede from a set-piece, it’s criminal, it’s something we work on and talk about, and for whatever reason, people decide to do whatever they want, and not defend properly. We did start the game really brightly, but again, even before they scored, we had opportunities but wasted a final pass, didn’t get a shot off, or our cross was poor.

It wasn’t just after they went down to 10 men, it was for a lot of the game, our quality wasn’t good enough, and when we get back in the game just on the stroke of half time, we think that it’s a great time to score and we can go on second half and get momentum. But we didn’t and we just couldn’t get that second goal and take the game on. I’ll say again, credit to Barry Town, they worked extremely hard and defended fantastically to a man.

On the goal

I think two or three flashed across the six-yard box first half and nobody’s on the end of them. It was a good ball from Alaric and Ben’s in the right place at the right time, as we ask our strikers to be. But there were too many ifs and maybes tonight, and not enough quality in the final third where we needed it to be.

On the next challenge

So we take a point, move on and we know how big the game is on Friday night against a very good Cardiff Met side at the top of the league. Met are a team where a lot of them have played together for a long time. They’ve got a way of playing that they all understand. They’re well coached, well organised, and it’s always a tough game. Since I’ve been here, there’s never been any game where one team has dominated the other. It’s always been really close, and they’re in fantastic form. Like I said, top of the league, so they’ll be coming here full of confidence after seeing our result tonight.

On finding our top level again

We should be at our best level for every game. It doesn’t matter if it’s Cardiff Met or Barry Town, Aberystwyth, TNS, it doesn’t matter. It’s three points for a win, nothing for a defeat, one for a draw, whoever you play against, and to get anything and earn anything from the game, you have to show quality at the right times – and we didn’t show enough quality tonight.