- Davies (47')
Haverfordwest County AFC manager Tony Pennock was proud of the way his team went toe-to-toe with JD Cymru Premier leaders Penybont on Tuesday evening, as the Bluebirds rued having two goals disallowed before being edged out 1-0 in Bridgend.
The Town thought they had taken the lead through striker Ben Ahmun’s fine finish, however the officials adjudged there to have been a foul in the build-up to the goal.
Mael Davies’ goal less than two minutes into the second half proved to be decisive, with County losing Luke Tabone to a second yellow card and seeing a second goal disallowed for offside.
Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:
On the performance
I thought the boys were fantastic. I thought they gave a really good account of themselves. We were extremely unfortunate not to be 1-0 up going into half time, but the referee and the linesman deemed there to be a foul which, for me, is embarrassing.
But then we shoot ourselves in the foot to start the second half. You can’t switch off against a top team, which Penybont are, with good players. They’re dangerous on set-pieces and we got punished and then Luke getting sent off, it makes it a massive mountain for us to climb then and as hard as the boys tried, and they did try really well, really hard, and gave a really good account of themselves, we just couldn’t get that equaliser. So yes, disappointing, but at the same time I’m really proud of the boys tonight.
On where we can improve
There were two good teams out there tonight. We knew it was going to be tough. We’ve had a number of battles with Penybont since I’ve been at the club. Unfortunately, more often than not, they’ve come away with the three points. I think we’ve beaten them twice. They’ve beat us four or five times now by the odd goal, and that’s where we have to strive to be a bit more competitive against the best teams in the league.
We drew 0-0 with them early in the season and we should have probably walked away from here with a 0-0 tonight, but we haven’t. It is what it is. Like I said, it’s hard not to go back to it, but the decision for a free-kick, I just can’t get my head around it. I’ve watched it back, and it’s embarrassing, but at the same time our defending from the kick-off which led to the corner and our defending on the set-piece is not good enough. It’s not something that we’ve done this season, we’ve only conceded nine goals still in the league, which is just fantastic, so to get frustrated about that is maybe a bit harsh, but it’s the truth and a fact that we have to be better in the other box because at the minute we’re not scoring the goals that our good play is creating.
On the game as a whole
Penybont are a fantastic team. From one to 11, they’ve got most of their players fit now, apart from Dan Jefferies obviously, but they’re a very strong team, very good, strong squad, and we are too. I think any new neutrals watching the game tonight would have thought it was a good game between two good teams. It was a tough test for both.
On our next challenge
First and foremost, we need to recover from tonight. Because Briton Ferry have had a really good result at home this evening. We know what a tough test we had when we played Briton Ferry away. We came away with three points that night, but it was an extremely tough game and we know we’re going to have another tough game on Friday. It’ll be slightly different to tonight’s test in different ways, but Briton Ferry have got some really talented young players, and we need to be at our best on Friday to pick something up.
