- Shephard (58')
- Ahmun (90')
- D. Williams (27')
- J. Williams (30', 48')
Haverfordwest County boss Tony Pennock was proud of the performance his players delivered against runaway JD Cymru Premier leaders The New Saints at the Ogi Bridge Meadow on Saturday afternoon.
The reigning champions came out on top 3-2, but were made to work hard as the Bluebirds threatened a second late comeback in as many weeks after last Saturday’s dramatic draw at Connah’s Quay Nomads.
The impressive Corey Shephard and substitute Ben Ahmun were on target for the Town, but the league’s top scorer Jordan Williams’ brace after Dan Williams’ opener was enough to earn the visitors the spoils.-
Here’s what the manager had to say in full after the game:
On the game
We worked hard in training this week on obviously playing a different shape against TNS. When we’ve lost every game that I’ve managed against them, you have to try something different, and we did that today. TNS are a fantastic football team with excellent individuals, and they’ve shown that again today. We just came up short. It’s disappointing to concede from two set-pieces, but I thought our second half display, there was glimpses in the first half when we kept the ball and passed it that we would create opportunities but second half I thought the lads were excellent. I’m really, really proud of that performance, and so should they, and we’ve just got to keep building on the performances. You look at our last two defeats, they’ve been against TNS and Penybont, first and second in our league. It just shows how far we’ve come since the start of the season. We’ve almost got a full squad back, and that makes a big difference to us.
On the first half
It’s disappointing because the first goal, Abu has contact with the man he’s marking and he goes to the ground, which leaves Dan Williams free and he finishes from the edge of the box. And then Scotch is injured, we weren’t really aware at that time he was injured and whether that contributed to the shape we were in when the pass got played forward. And listen, Jordan Williams is on fantastic form. I’m not sure how many goals he’s got this season now, but Jordan Williams in that position doesn’t miss many, and he finished it really well. So to go in at half time two down was disappointing, but our second half performance was excellent.
On Corey’s goal and the positives
It was a fantastic goal. There’s loads of positives to take from the game, the result aside, there’s so many positives. Kyle Kenniford getting more minutes on the pitch as well at the end today. Ows started by himself up and Ben came on, it just shows that we’ve got a lot of boys fit now and really fighting for their places, but also fighting for the team as a whole, and that’s the most important thing; when we’ve got that spirit there’s no doubt we win more games than we lose, and we’ve got to keep this momentum going heading into Tuesday night and then a tough game away at Caernarfon next Saturday. We’ll get over the disappointment of not getting anything today, but we really should be looking at the positives of how well we’ve performed again against a team that has won 12 games on the bounce now. Once they get into that run, TNS are difficult to stop. Y
That’s what he’s there for. That’s his job. Whether it’s Luc or Ifan in goal, their job is to stop the ball going in the net and people in front of them to defend and score goals. We all have to do our jobs and do them to the best of our ability, and everybody did that today. The boys who came off the bench certainly played their part in that second half performance, which we have to do. Every single one of us.
On the Nathaniel MG Cup quarter-final
The boys are looking forward to it. Barry beat us here earlier in the league campaign 3-2, and they deserved to beat us. We pushed them all the way that night, but conceded late on. The boys will recover now and we look forward to a tough game on Tuesday night.
