- Cieślewicz (21')
Haverfordwest County AFC manager Tony Pennock believes the disappointment we felt at not taking something from the 1-0 defeat to JD Cymru Premier champions The New Saints yesterday shows how far we have come as a team.
The Bluebirds showed their battling qualities to stay in the contest right until the final whistle, and had opportunities of their own to find the net.
The Town remain third in the standings, and will be looking to build on the positives from this display when they visit Flint Town United next Saturday.
Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:
On the result
I think the boys gave a good account of themselves. Against TNS, we’re always going to have long spells without the ball, and they are going to have opportunities. I think they’ve had two shots on target. We limited them to a few half chances, not many clear-cut chances, and we were always in the game. We’ve had our chances ourselves, without testing the keeper, but I think it shows how far we’ve come as a group that we’re disappointed we didn’t get something out of the game. But at the same time, there’s still areas that we need to be better at, and today showed that against the best team in the league. So we’re disappointed, the [unbeaten] run has ended, but now it’s important that we bounce back as quick as we can and start the run again as soon as we can.
On the performance
There’s lots of positives. I thought there were some really good performances against, like I said, the best team in the league. I saw TNS play Aberystwyth on Tuesday, and I think only four of the ones who played Tuesday started today. It shows the strength and depth they’ve got. I think it shows that the team Craig [Harrison] picked on Tuesday against the team he picked today, obviously I think they saw us as a threat. I’m sure they see everybody as a threat, and I’m sure they thought they’d have a tough game here today and I think we have given them a good game. Like I said, we’ll learn a lot from those games. We know where we need to be better against the best teams and hopefully we take that into the rest of the season.
At times we gave the ball back to them far too cheaply. The boys know that, we talked about it after the game, and against somebody with that quality, you can’t keep giving them the ball. But in saying that, I thought we were in the game for the full 90 minutes, and when it’s only 1-0 you can always get something from the game. I thought the boys, they were great, it was exceptional as it always has been, and we’ll learn a lot from today. Like I said, to say we’re disappointed we’re losing to somebody who’s playing in the league phase of the UEFA Conference League, it says a lot about how far we’ve come as a group.
On our start to the season
The start has been excellent. The team’s we’ve played against, most of last year’s top six, only Bala from last year’s top six we haven’t played against, and Penybont – I say it again – I think will finish second this year. I think they’re a very strong team, and we gave them a good game here a couple of weeks ago. We dust ourselves down and we prepare really hard now for a game against Flint away next week. I’ve watched Flint twice this season and Fowls [Lee Fowler] has got them playing really good football. They’re a young side who are brave with the ball and it’ll be a really tough test away to Flint next week because I know how hard they work for each other.
On next week’s challenge.
They [Flint Town United] haven’t had the start that they’d have wanted, but in saying that they’re a team that don’t change how they play and they’re a very good footballing team. I saw them play their first game of the season against Cardiff Met, they lost that one 2-1 after being 1-0 ahead, and they had opportunities to get back in the game. Then last week away at Barry I was there and they were 2-0 up half time, had chances to score and maybe put the game to bed, they didn’t do that and then Barry came out second half, made a few changes and Barry were dominant in fairness to Jenks [Steve Jenkins] and his team. Sam Snaith came on and made a big difference for them, and once they got back to 2-1 so early in the game, you thought that Barry’s experience would help them and it certainly did. They went on to win the game 3-2, but it didn’t stop Flint battling away and playing the football as they know they can, and that’s what got them promoted up from the Cymru North, and that’s why they’re still playing it with the group of players they’ve got, so it’ll be a tough test. It always is at Flint.
On our strong defensive displays
It’s something that we haven’t done in my previous two seasons, keep clean sheets. It was good today that we didn’t concede straight after they scored their first goal. Sometimes that’s something that we’ve done against TNS in the past. They’ve scored one, then they’ve scored two and three. We stayed in the game, we got to half time and regrouped, then we made a couple of changes after 10 minutes which gave us some fresh legs and it’s important that we do that as a side. The boys who start on the bench are as important as the boys who are starting from the first whistle, and Ben [Fawcett] and Harri [John] have come on and worked extremely well and given us some quality as well.
So as a group, we’ve moved forward from last season. We don’t concede goals as easily as we have in the past, and it’s an obvious statement but, if we don’t concede, we’ve got more chance of winning, and that’s the way we’re looking to play this year. We still want to play and have as much possession as we possibly can, but we need to be sensible in our own third, defend our goal, and the boys are certainly doing that – it’s pleasing to see.
