- Davies (22')
- Oteh (29')
- Marshall (61')
- Williams (76')
- Jones (34')
Haverfordwest County manager Tony Pennock admitted his side had a rare off day as the Bluebirds suffered a 5-1 defeat to champions-elect The New Saints at Park Hall on Saturday lunchtime.
The Town gave themselves a mountain to climb after going three goals down inside the opening half hour, but Owain Jones’ goal did give County some hope going into the break.
However, two further goals for the Shropshire side after the restart ensured a comfortable success, with the Bluebirds tasting defeat for the first time in nine matches.
Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:
On the result
It’s always a tough afternoon at Park Hall. It’s hard to be critical of the boys because they’ve been so good for us all season, but we weren’t at the races today. We didn’t start great, we gave them a foothold in the game and they capitalised on it. But the lads got back into the game at 3-1 and if we get the next chance and are able to take it and then it’s game on, but we gave them too many easy goals really today and we didn’t do the basics well, which we’ve done well all season. So, yes, disappointed, disappointed to concede the goals we have because we’ve been so good this season, but it’s done and dusted now. We just move on to next week away at Bala.
On the performance
It’s easy to explain because TNS have 13 wins on the bounce. They’re in full flow now. I always thought once Europe was over for them and they had most of their players back from injury they’d be back to the TNS of old, and they’ve certainly done that. Coming here and getting beat isn’t a disgrace because it happens to a lot of teams, and it has recently the way TNS have performed. Credit to the boys, they kept passing, kept trying to play and create things, but we just weren’t at it today, and TNS were very, very good, so, I don’t know, that’s all we can say, really.
On not replicating our display from Phase One
Nobody has [found success at Park Hall] since the end of Phase One really, because, as I said, TNS are out of Europe now, they’re able to play Saturday to Saturday and they’re very good at it. They’re an excellent team, and today we’ve caught them on a really good day for themselves.
On Owain’s goal
It’s something that we talked about. If we were going to cause them problems it would be with that sort of ball from back to front quickly. We caused problems against them when we played them earlier in the season here and again today, and there were one or two others as well where we created half chances from it, the ball maybe just didn’t drop or we didn’t take that chance but it’s always pleasing, Ows has worked hard for that goal and I thought he was unfortunate when he hit the bar but then in fairness he followed up and put it away.
The game was probably gone at 3-0, we know that, to come back from that is a mountain against TNS, like any team but I’ve got to give the boys credit. They’ve worked hard and they kept going, which is all I can ask of them, and the most important thing now is we get over it quickly and we look forward to a really tough game next week away at Bala.
On the youngster’s having their chance
We needed fresh legs. The boys had covered a lot of ground. Jacob hasn’t played a lot lately, Greg’s been out with his suspension, so there’s nothing against the two boys that I took off. It could have been a number of them that I could have given a rest to second half, just to get fresh legs on the pitch. Same with Kyle Kenniford, he’s been itching for game time, and the same with Harri John, so it doesn’t matter who is in our squad, who was starting on the bench, I’m happy with any of them being on the pitch for us at any time, so when a sub comes on it doesn’t mean that we’ve weakened the team at all, it means that somebody’s worked hard and come off and somebody with fresh legs has come on to try and try and change things and try and get us a goal but yes, everybody’s had minutes today and it’s important that everybody is ready. Hopefully Dan Hawkins will be back next week, he had a bad injury against Cardiff Met, so hopefully Dan will be involved next weekend which is key for us because we need everybody available.
On the next challenge
Consistency is important going into the play-offs. That’s the first game we’ve lost in nine in the league. The first one in Phase Two that we’ve lost, so it’s important that we get back to a good performance and a positive result as soon as possible. We know how tough it is away at Bala, and I’m sure Bala will be looking forward to us going there next weekend. So we have to be ready for that challenge, like we have all season, and like I said, today’s done, we just have to move on and get ready for next week.
