Haverfordwest County manager Tony Pennock was pleased that his team could send a bumper crowd of 767 home happy after the Bluebirds defeated high-flying Colwyn Bay 1-0 at the Ogi Bridge Meadow yesterday.

Rhys Abbruzzese’s goal just after the hour mark was enough to earn County a deserved three points against a confident Seagulls side, with the result lifiting the Town out of the bottom two in the JD Cymru Premier.

The performance was another impressive one from the Blues, who were delighted to turn their positive display into a win having experienced a couple of defeats and draws in recent matches.

Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:

On the game

1-0 is always a nervy scoreline. Colwyn Bay are a really good, strong team. They were missing a couple of players themselves today, the same as us, but we’ve been missing players all season. So it’s all down to the squad you have, and I thought first half we played really well. We probably didn’t get the clear-cut chances we wanted, other than the one where their keeper has made a great save from a set-piece from Dylan’s header, and Ben [Fawcett] has hit the bar late on, but I thought overall the boys were very, very good again today. A 1-0 win at home puts us in a decent position as we move forward.

On turning a good performance into a win

I keep saying that the last seven games have been excellent. Three wins, two draws and two defeats against TNS and Penybont, and the two away draws were against Connah’s Quay and Caernarfon. So it just shows how tough a run of games we’ve had. We don’t play anybody now outside of the top five in the run in. We’ve got some really tough away games, four away games, which are always tough in this league, but by the time we play our next game, obviously Greg Walters will be back, Scotch maybe, and we’ll be stronger again. So that’s all we can do is keep moving forward one game at a time, and hopefully we pick up more points along the way.

On the goal

Abu with a wonder strike on his right foot, sometimes in games like that it takes a strange goal. Abu is always a threat in the final third, and maybe they think that his right foot is not going to be much of a threat, but I think it went under the defender’s foot. The goalkeeper was unsighted in fairness, like I said he made a really good save first half, and like I say he was unsighted, maybe that’s why it went past him. But we take any goal as it comes, and take the three points and the clean sheet.

On the defensive effort

Colwyn Bay’s front three are a real handful, and obviously when you’ve got Nathan Peate – probably the best header of a ball in the league now that Lee Jenkins isn’t playing for us anymore – he’s a massive threat off set-pieces, always has been, always will be. When they’ve got the long throw that they’ve got as well with two of their players, a long throw into the box, we know how tough it is. I thought the boys were outstanding, the way they’ve put their bodies on the line and blocked shots and dealt with balls coming in the box all day, every one of them, Luc [Rees] as well coming for balls and taking some knocks along the way. But I can’t fault the boys. We’ve got a few bumps and bruises in there, but like I said we’ve got a weekend off next weekend, so we can focus on training and being ready for Barry Town a week on Friday.

On the attendance, Junior Fun Day and Prendergast CP School takeover

All credit to Beccy and all the staff, we were all here this morning at half past eight putting the marquee up, and the event that they put on on a match day is something that a lot of clubs should maybe try and do because it gets people here. Prendergast School have been at the club all week, and seeing them over there in the stand now, it’s important that when people come to the game we’re not only playing well, but we’re also giving them something to enjoy, and I think as a club we certainly do that and have been doing it for a long time. You look at our crowds, how much they’ve improved over the last three years, it’s amazing to see that on a Saturday afternoon when the Pembrokeshire League is playing that we’re getting just short of 800 people here, so it’s credit to everyone at the club, and long may that continue.