By James Dow

Ahead of Sunday’s JD Cymru Premier European play-off final, we’ve taken a look back at the Bluebirds’ most recent play-off final against Newtown in May 2023 – which saw County reach the qualifying stages of European competition for the first time since 2004.

Prior to the match

The Bluebirds went on a seven-game unbeaten run at the end of the regular season, leaving Tony Pennock’s side in seventh place, setting up a semi-final tie with fourth place Cardiff Metropolitan at Cyncoed Campus.

The semi-final was a very tight affair, with nothing to separate the teams in normal time. Both sides had chances to win in normal time, with goalkeeper Zac Jones denying Eliot Evans from the penalty spot in the second half, but the game always seemed destined to be decided

The shootout began well for the Bluebirds, with Jones making a great stop with his feet to deny now-teammate Kyle McCarthy, before Dylan Rees calmy slotted past Alex Lang into the left corner.

Jones once again made another great save to deny Lewis Rees, and his side a commanding lead when Cardiff City loanee Jack Leahy smashed his penalty into the top right-hand corner.

A miss from Henry Jones saw the shoot-out tied at 3-3, before Elliott Dugan powered the ball past Lang to see the Town into the final, where they would taken on Newtown who had defeated Bala Town 4-2 at Maes Tegid the previous day.

Team news

Pennock picked an unchanged starting XI from the shoot-out win in the capital, with the only change in the squad seeing Ben Fawcett replacing Dugan on the substitutes bench.

Haverfordwest County AFC: Z. Jones, Wilson (Fawcett 105’), Rees (C), Jenkins, Borg (Watts 54’), Abbruzzese, Shephard, Veale (Leahy 78’), H. Jones (Evans 86’), Davies, Hawkins

Substitutes not used: Idzi, Humphreys, H. John

Match summary

The Bluebirds started the match well, controlling the ball in the early stages with forward Dan Hawkins nearly capitalising on a mistake from goalkeeper Dave Jones who failed to clear his lines from a goal kick, but fortunately for Jones, the ball rolled kindly to defender Shane Sutton instead of Hawkins.

The Town continued their positive start to the match and took the lead 24 minutes in when Robins captain Craig Williams failed to deal with a ball into the area from Rees, which looped up kindly for top scorer Jordan Davies who made no mistake in directing the ball past Jones and opening the scoring.

The Robins did respond seven minutes before half-time when Craig Williams’ cross picked out namesake Aaron, who rose highest to head home and draw the game level.

The Bluebirds came out of the blocks in the second half in a similar way to the first, although it was the home side who created the first chance with Jones denying Zeli Ismail, before the attack continued and fell to Nick Rushton, but his effort flew well over the crossbar.

As the hour mark approached, Corey Shephard struck from long range but his effort was cleared to safety by the head of Sutton, while County were happy to play on the counter-attack with Jack Wilson delivering an incisive ball to Davies, but it just evaded the forward with any contact likely to have resulted in a goal.

The Bluebirds had the final chance in normal time when a great ball from Henry Jones played Wilson in, who was one-on-one with Jones, but his first-time effort went well over the bar.

As the match went into extra time, chances were few and far between, with both sides feeling the effects of over 100 minutes in sweltering conditions.

There was however one more chance for the Bluebirds on the 100-minute mark when substitute Ioan Evans produced a curling effort at Jones who got across in time to gather the ball.

As the tie ended level, we went to a second penalty shoot-out in as many weeks, with the Bluebirds once again getting off to the perfect start when Aaron Williams sent the opening penalty straight at Zac Jones who had stood his ground, before Rees once again converted the first Haverfordwest County penalty to make it 1-0 to the Town.

The Robins converted their next two penalties, before Henry Cowans dragged his effort wide of the left post, leaving the Bluebirds one spot-kick away from Europe.

Ben Fawcett stepped up, but his effort was guessed correctly by Jones who denied the forward.

Nigel Aris then kept his side in the shoot-out by going straight down the middle and past Jones.

Midfielder Corey Shephard then had the chance to win the match for the Bluebirds, and did so successfully by slotting the ball into the bottom left-hand corner and securing the Town’s return to Europe for the first time since 2004, sparking fantastic post-match scenes with the Bluebirds fans.

Where did the result leave the Bluebirds?

The result meant that the Bluebirds participated in a European competition for the first time in 19 years, where they would go onto face North Macedonian side KF Shkëndija in the UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round. Having lost the first leg 1-0 in Skopje, Lee Jenkins’ 89th-minute equaliser sent the tie to extra time before Pennock’s men again triumphed on penalties in what was our most famous night.

County would then face B36 Tórshavn, with the Bluebirds travelling out to the Faroe Islands in the first leg where we were narrowly defeated 2-1.

The second leg was once again held at the Cardiff City Stadium, where the Bluebirds went 1-0 up courtesy of a Ben Fawcett goal at the back-post to bring the game to extra time.

The away side managed to find a winning goal, with Fawcett harshly adjudged to have handled the ball in the area, leaving Jann Benjaminsen to convert from the spot which was a disappointing conclusion to an unforgettable experience for Haverfordwest County AFC – who will hope for a similar experience again this summer.