By James Dow

Haverfordwest County fell to a 5-0 defeat to reigning JD Cymru Premier champions The New Saints at Park Hall on Saturday.

A hat-trick from Jordan Williams, along with goals from Ryan Brobbel and Rory Holden, condemned the Bluebirds to their first defeat since the opening day of the season.

The first half was evenly contested, with chances at both ends, but the Saints made the breakthrough in the 19th minute when a superb ball upfield from Brobbel was finished by Holden.

The Saints stepped it up after the break, scoring four goals in just 11 minutes to seal the victory.

The first chance fell to the hosts when a long ball up the left flank was raced onto by Jordan Williams, who played a ball across goal to Ben Wilson, but his effort was straight into the arms of Luc Rees who did well to get down quickly to deny the forward.

Just a minute later, the Bluebirds had a great opportunity to take the lead themselves when a lobbed ball into the area from Corey Shephard was met by Iori Humphreys, but his ball across goal was well read by goalkeeper Nathan Shepperd who intercepted the cross.

The Town looked positive going forward with Humphreys once again looking to deliver the ball into the box, with his cross this time met by Ben Fawcett, whose headed effort was straight at Shepperd.

The hosts managed to take the lead just before the 20th minute when Holden got onto the end of Brobbel’s long pass upfield before directing his effort past Rees and into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

With County looking to respond, some good link-up play between Panashe Makwiramati and Dan Hawkins saw the latter carve out an opportunity just outside of the area, but his effort went wide of the right post.

Brobbel almost added the Saints’ second 10 minutes before half time when a powerful effort from distance hit the crossbar.

The hosts finished the first-half strongly, and a fantastic save from Rees denied Wilson’s powerful effort in stoppage time.

The second half started slowly, but the Saints doubled their advantage 10 minutes after the restart when Jack Bodenham’s header from a corner was saved by Rees, only for Jordan Williams to pounce on the rebound from close range.

The hosts added a third five minutes later when Dan Williams’ strike from 25 yards deflected off his teammate and namesake Jordan, who was in an offside position, with Rees wrong-footed as the ball found the left side of the net.

The Saints scored their fourth goal shortly after the hour mark when a defensive mix-up saw the ball fall kindly to Brobbel in the box, and he had the simple task of finding the net from close range.

The final goal of the contest came from a quick break, as Wilson won the ball high up the pitch and squared it to Jordan Williams, who rounded Rees and tapped into an empty net to complete his hat-trick.

One positive for the Bluebirds came late on, as new signing Tom Shepherd and academy players Ashley Watkins and Hari Thomas were all given the opportunity to make their JD Cymru Premier debuts for the club.

The New Saints: Nathan Shepperd, Dominic Corness (Jack Nadin 74’), Jack Bodenham, Ryan Brobbel (Louis Phillips 74’), Danny Redmond, Dan Williams, Harrison McGahey, Jordan Williams (Ken Charles 71’), Rory Holden (Isaac Jefferies 60’), Danny Davies (Jacob Owen 71’), Ben Wilson

Substitutes not used: Bryn Owen, Jake Morris

Haverfordwest County: Luc Rees, Iori Humphreys, Greg Walters, Ricky Watts (Tom Shepherd 79′), Alaric Jones, Rhys Abbruzzese, Panashe Makwiramiti (Luc Owen 70′), Corey Shephard, Dan Hawkins (Ashley Watkins 86′), Ben Fawcett (Hari Thomas 86′), Ben Ahmun (Owain Jones 70′)

Substitutes not used: Ifan Knott