- Abbruzzese (33')
- Hawkins (50')
- Humphreys (89')
- Phillips (61')
Haverfordwest County manager Tony Pennock was pleased with the improved attacking display, along with a resolute defensive shift, his team put in to claim a 3-1 win over Flint Town United at the Ogi Bridge Meadow on Saturday.
Rhys Abbruzzese’s superb free-kick gave the Bluebirds a half-time lead, with Dan Hawkins finishing off a fine move to make it 2-0 five minutes into the second half.
Jake Phillips’ wind-assisted cross from the right touchline flew into the far corner to make it a nervy ending to the game, but substitute Iori Humphreys’ close-range header in the 89th minute secured the spoils for County.
Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:
On the result
That was a real battle. Flint are a very good side, Lee [Fowler] and Steve [Evans] have done a great job there. They had a tough time when they first came back into the league, but last year they improved loads again and this year they’ve got a real good squad together. The way they play, you’ve got to commend them. They pass the ball and they got people up top who can cause lots of problems in the two centre forwards, and they’re a constant threat. We knew that coming into the game, they had a good win last week against Briton Ferry, I watched that and they were dominant, and we knew how tought it would be today.
The first goal was really important. It was good to get that one, a great finish by Abu, and then at half time we just said listen, we’ve got to be sensible, play the game right, and hopefully with the conditions it might help us. And then getting a second goal, I thought it did. We were a bit disappointed to give them the goal we did. They didn’t really have to do a lot for that goal, but in fairness to the boys, they defended really well when we didn’t have the ball for the last 20 minutes of the game, and we nicked one then with the set-piece late on.
On the goals
It’s a great goal [Dan Hawkins’ goal] because when you look at the work people put in to make that goal, I think it was Fawcey, he got the ball and played it out wide, and Sheppy’s made another forward run, how many of them has he made today, and Dan’s run inside, Sheppy recognised that and then the backheel and it’s a great finish. We haven’t been hitting the target with anywhere near the level of consistency that we should be as a group, and I say everybody, not just the forwards, the midfielders, Dan’s playing wing-back today and he scored from wing-back.
If you hit the target, you’ll score more often than you won’t, and it’s something we’ve done today. We’ve got a few shots off early doors where we have to put the keeper under some sort of pressure. For the last few weeks, we haven’t been doing that at all. Both of our keepers have been under constant pressure for our first 10 games of the season, and we have to do that to the opposition and make them defend their box. And today, they were two great strikes, and then to score from a set-piece again, it was Dan out wide, a good ball in, Ows’ header back across was unselfish and it’s given somebody else the chance to score and Iori’s in the right place at the right time to finish the game off.
On getting a few players back
Obviously Scotch has been playing the last few weeks. He’s done far more than we’d planned for him and and we’ve got to be careful with Elliot. He hasn’t played for two years, so he’s played 90 today and he shouldn’t have played 90 today, I’ll be honest.
Wattsy’s been brilliant at centre half, Greg has been brilliant at centre half. We haven’t had Kyle McCarthy recently, he’s been a massive loss in the back three players from last season. Not just his performances, but his leadership and his experience to add to the three centre halves playing today. It was important, and we felt that we needed three out and out midfielders in the team to try and nullify Flint’s threat because like I said, it was fine margins today. Flint were well in the game, especially when they go back to 2-1, it could have gone either way after that, but luckily for us we’ve had a bit of luck today that we probably haven’t had in quite a few of the games previously.
On next week
It’s a totally different outlook now. If you don’t get three points a day, you’re going to a team who will be in the top three again this season, it puts even more pressure on Tuesday night with a game then against Bala at home on Friday night.
So it’s a tough week. There’s no easy games in this league, especially this season. It wasn’t last season either. The boys know that they need to recover and look after themselves and be ready for another tough game on Tuesday night because we certainly want to go to Penybont and give a good account ourselves, as we do every game.
