Haverfordwest County manager Tony Pennock was once again proud of the way his team battled back from a two-goal deficit to earn a deserved draw in north Wales, as the Bluebirds came from 2-0 down to share the spoils with Caernarfon Town at the Go Goodwins Stadium in Llandudno yesterday.

County produced an impressive first-half display but we were unable to make their positive play tell on the scoreboard, with goals from Adam Davies and The New Saints loanee Sion Bradley giving the Canaries a 2-0 lead with the hour mark approaching.

The Blues responded through Owain Jones with just over 25 minutes remaining, before Corey Shephard struck in the ninth minute of added time to clinch a dramatic late point for Pennock’s men in our first visit to the Go Goodwins Stadium since November 2015.

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

On the game

I thought that first half, our first half performance again was outstanding. Let’s not forget, we’re playing against a really good team by the way, and first half I thought we were the better team. We created good chances and we just didn’t hit the target. Even second half we’ve had chances. The first goal was important to get it back to 2-1, and I just felt that we were still in the game all the way through. Credit to the boys, they got what they deserved, and we take a point away with us.

Caernarfon have had 16 different goalscorers this year. It shows what a threat they’ve got throughout the team going forward. They’re a handful so, when you’re on top, we need to take our chances. It’s not the first time it’s happened to us this year, twice against Penybont, we were on top against them in both games and came away with nothing. Really good teams find a way of scoring, and when you’ve got the players they’ve got in their front three, they’re always going to have a chance, and they punished us with two poor goals from our point, but they still punished us and for us to get back in the game then was another great effort. That’s seven goals in three league games, and we’ve just got to kick on now for the last seven games of Phase One.

On being rewarded for our performances

That’s what we talk about all the time. When you play well you get what you deserve. It’s hard playing well all the time and not getting what you deserve out of the game. You work hard all week for a match on a Saturday or Friday, whenever it is, and it’s hard. The boys are working extremely well in training. They do all the time and have done since I’ve been at the club, so you get what you deserve out of a game and that’s putting in a performance on a Saturday. But listen, it’s a really tough place to come, Caernarfon always has been. They’re going to finish top three again this season, and it’s twice we’ve drawn with them. On the balance of it, we’ll take the two points.

On next week’s game and having belief

When we perform the way we have in the last six league games, we’ve competed with every team in those six games. We lost to TNS by the odd goal, we lost to Penybont by the odd goal, but we were in both of those games. And that’s what we’ve got to keep doing and believing. A draw away at Connah’s Quay, a draw away here and two home wins. We’ve just got to keep believing in ourselves, and when we do get the ball down and play we are a good football team. We’ve just got to keep going and plugging away and see what we can get out of these last seven games.

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