- Roscrow (40')
Haverfordwest County AFC manager Tony Pennock was happy to take a point from the 1-1 draw with Cardiff Metropolitan on Friday night, a result which proved enough to secure the Bluebirds a first third place top-flight finish since 2003-04.
The Students went ahead five minutes before the interval through Adam Roscrow, but County responded in the 68th minute when goalkeeper Kelland Absalom turned the ball into his own net after Kyle Kenniford’s effort had hit the left post.
The result also meant that the Town have only tasted defeat to three of our 11 opponents in this season’s JD Cymru Premier.
Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:
On the game
I thought we played well again. Obviously disappointed to concede the goal in the manner we did, but those things happen at times. Games against Met, they’re always tight. I think only once in the three years I’ve been here has somebody won a game by more than one goal and that was Met beating us 2-0 a couple of years ago.
But listen, it’a point, we’re over the line and for us to achieve third place is fantastic. It’s credit to the lads, the work they’ve put in from pre-season all the way through the season. You get what you deserve when you work hard and they’ve been fantastic this year. So for our club, we’ve only been back in the league five years, to go to Europe in that time and now finish third is fantastic. Long may that continue, and hopefully we’ll improve again next season.
On going unbeaten against the Archers this season
Two wins and two draws against Met, a team we’ve won against and lost to over the last few years, but to play them four times this year so far, listen, we might play them again, who knows which way the play-offs are going to go, but we’d have certainly taken that at the start of the season.
On our areas for improvement
Like I said, getting top six was our aim at the start of the season, we achieved that, and then of the five away games in Phase Two, we’ve only lost one and drawn four. I think that shows how far we’ve come as a team defensively. Yes, we know we can be better going forward, and tonight, apart from the goal, we haven’t really tested their goalkeeper and we’ve had several opportunities in good areas of the pitch. We’ll keep working at it, and we’ll get better at it. I know the boys are determined to put that side of our game right, and when we do, we’ll be an even better team.
On getting back in the groove after a week’s break
The boys had a little bit of a rest last week, but training was really good this week, a really high intensity. It’s not easy keeping them motivated when there’s gaps in games, and we know what it’s going to be like now depending on what happens in the Welsh Cup final, in terms of the gap we’ll have between our last game and the play-offs. The boys look after themselves really well, it’s something that I trust them with and that’ll be the case for the next five weeks.
On the next challenge
Obviously the last time we played The New Saints, they caught us on a bad day and we caught them on a very good day, because they were outstanding when we lost 5-1 up there a few weeks ago. We want to put that right. We were nowhere near our best that day, and to even compete with TNS you have to be at your best, and that’s what our focus is now for next week; not repeating the performance we had up in TNS a few weeks ago.
We’re at home. We’ve got a proud home record. We’ve only lost once at home this season against Penybont, and we certainly don’t want to lose another one. We know how tough it will be, but being in the top six these are the games we want, and we’ll look forward to a really tough game against the champions of the league again.
