- Fawcett (10')
- Abbruzzese (71')
Gary Richards was pleased with our performance in the 2-0 victory at Newtown on Boxing Day, which saw Haverfordwest County AFC return to third place in the JD Cymru Premier.
Ben Fawcett’s early goal and a second-half penalty from Rhys Abbruzzese earned the Bluebirds a deserved three points in Powys, ahead of our much-anticipated return to the Ogi Bridge Meadow Stadium on New Year’s Day.
The Town defended resolutely to ensure an 11th clean sheet in 19 league games, with County having conceded just nine times so far in 2024-25.
Here’s what the assistant manager had to say in full after the game:
On the performance
I thought it was a really good professional performance. I think after the Llanelli game, where we dropped our level a little bit, it was important we bounced back with a good performance today, which I think we did.
Another sound defensive performance gave us a platform to go and get those couple of goals we had, and perhaps we could have got another one before half time, but second half we had to defend a number of crosses, which I think we did pretty well.
On Ben Fawcett’s goal
He was alert to the ball over the top to be fair, kept onside and showed good composure to go around the keeper. It was a good start and I think we could set our stall out from that goal.
On another clean sheet
We said before the game that we still had to defend well, but to be fair to the boys, they know what that looks like. They’ve defended well all season really. So again, another solid performance, they had a couple of opportunities which you’re going to expect, but on the whole we didn’t give much away to be fair.
It’s important when people step in that they perform as well, which I think everybody’s done on the odd occasion we’ve had to change the back line. Whoever’s come in has performed well.
On returning home on New Year’s Day
I think everybody in the club, everybody in Haverfordwest is looking forward to it. We’re hoping we get a big crowd. It’ll be a good occasion. It’ll be good to get back home. But the most important thing will still be the performance and the result.
