- Hawkins (44', 64')
- Ahmun (69')
- Abadaki (31')
- Edwards (80')
Haverfordwest County AFC manager Tony Pennock was pleased with the way his team stuck to their task as the Bluebirds secured a 3-2 victory over Bala Town in their JD Cymru Premier Championship Conference curtain-raiser at the Ogi Bridge Meadow.
Dan Hawkins’ brace and a well-taken goal from Ben Ahmun was enough to earn the three points for the Bluebirds, with Osebi Abadaki and Aeron Edwards finding the net for the Lakesiders.
The result means the Town have won all three games since returning to the Ogi Bridge Meadow, and are now just four points away from setting a new club record tally in a 12-team top-flight season.
Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:
On the performance
I thought we were very good today. Disappointed to go down a goal when we did, especially as I thought we had the better chances in the first half, but credit to the lads, they battled back and got an equaliser before half time, which is always better going in at half time.
Everybody’s mood is a bit different when you’ve got that equaliser, and then second half it was just a case really of carry on doing the things we were doing, improve our quality a little bit, and the boys did that and to go 3-1 up like we did, I thought we were quite in control of the game then.
Obviously letting Bala back in at 3-2, everybody’s going to be a bit edgy then, but I just thought especially after the sending off, we kept the ball and I thought we’d go on and get another one or two but listen, any win against Bala, you grab with both hands. That’s the first time we’ve beaten them here since I’ve been here, they’re a very good side with a lot of good players, so we’ll take the three points and move on to next week.
On the goals
A couple of balls went across the face of goal in the first half, but in the main finishing and taking our chances is something that we’ve got better at recently, and we need to keep doing that and keep improving week in, week out, because we are creating chances. What we can’t do is be sloppy at the other end of the pitch, which we haven’t been all season. That can’t creep into our game now if we’re going to be more attack-minded, but it’s three points, it’s a good start to Phase Two for us and it’s another home win. Our home form has always been important to us since I’ve been here, and to win all three games at home since we got back to the ground, it’s massive, and hopefully we can pick up a few more.
On the rest of Phase Two
We want to finish as high as we can because everybody knows that you get a home semi-final then. That’s our aim, to try and finish as high as we can, the highest the club’s ever finished and see where that takes us. But we know how tough that is. We’ve got nine tough games left.
Maybe having three of our last four at home is something that will be good for us, but we know every game is going to be tough in Phase Two. Having everybody fit, Dylan picked up a knock in training Thursday so he was unavailable today. Kyle Kenniford missed out on the squad today, so we know how strong our squad is at the moment, and training has been excellent since we finished Phase One. Everybody knows they’re competing for places and it’s good to have the headache that I’ve got at the moment.
On Lee Jenkins making his 100th appearance
Everybody knows what a good player Jenks is. We’re lucky to have him, and I’ve certainly been fortunate to have him in the three years that I’ve been at the club. So long may that continue and hopefully there’ll be other boys getting past the 100 mark in the not too distant future.
On next week’s game with Penybont
They’ve had a fantastic season. Great squad of players. They’ve got a lot of players that have been there a number of years, similar to us, and a manager and coaching staff that work extremely hard to get them where they are. We know how tough it is away at Penybont. It’s a place we’ve not won at since I’ve been here, so it’s something we’d like to change, but we know how tough that is, so we have to make sure everybody’s ready for next Saturday, train hard this week, and then look forward to a game live on TV next Saturday.
