Haverfordwest County manager Tony Pennock was again proud of the character his players showed as the Bluebirds came from 2-0 down late on to claim a 2-2 draw with Flint Town United at the Essity Stadium yesterday.

County trailed by two goals inside the final 10 minutes after Elliott Reeves’ first-half opener and substitute Josh Jones’ second-half penalty, but the Town struck twice in as many minutes through Dan Hawkins and Ben Ahmun to salvage a dramatic point in north Wales.

It’s the second time that the Blues have fought back from a two-goal deficit to earn a point at the Essity Stadium this evening, having previously done so against high-flying Connah’s Quay Nomads at the end of October.

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

On the result

I think personally we definitely deserved something from the game. We didn’t play great first half, we limited them to one chance and they scored. We talked about it this week in training that we’ve got to be better in the final third, and when we eventually did that later on, we scored two goals. There’s too much ability not to be creating chances and testing goalkeepers, and it’s something that we work constantly on, and thankfully the lads got us out of trouble late on.

On the improved second half

You have to make subs, the game needed to change. It’s nothing that Panashe or Iori were doing wrong, I just felt that we needed to change things and bring people into positions where we could be more of a threat. We had to do something otherwise the game would have just petered out. I think all of the subs have come on today and made an impact. Young Ashley Watkins has come on for the last 10, 15 minutes, and I think he was excellent, which is pleasing because he does great work for the under-19s with Ceri and Gareth, and he’s shown that again today. He’s been excellent with us in training and when he has played little parts, but I thought today he really showed what a good football player he is.

On conceding the second goal

It was disappointing. Again we’ve caused our own problems. Ricky made two fantastic tackles and it drops, we don’t clear it, and then Ricky dives in and gives a penalty away. But listen, it’s done now, we’re away from home, we’ve got a point, we moved up a place in the table, and we’ve got three massive games left. It’s tough opposition in and around us, so we have to try and pick as many points up as we possibly can.

On the goals

I think they get fed up of me saying that, between the posts. You look at strikers at all levels from the top, top players in world football to top players at our level, if you spend more time between the posts, you get opportunities to score goals. The further you get away from the goal, it’s harder to score. The ball has come in and he’s got his head on it and it’s in the back of the net. And Dan as well, he’s done well at right wing-back. Dan is an attacking-natured player, and he showed that second half and obviously got the first goal for us, whether it’s his or a deflection I’m not sure, but all that matters is the ball is in the back of the net, and the impetus was with us then. Flint obviously had a few injuries and it was tough for them to cope with us then.

On the performance, character and rest of Phase One

It was a disappointing performance in a lot of areas, but you’ve got to give the boys credit again to show the character. They didn’t drop their heads and kept going, and I did think once we got the first one, we’d go on and get something out of the game, and we did.

First and foremost, we’ve got to get ourselves out of the position we’re in. We’ve been in the bottom two, we were bottom of the league at one stage in the season. But the boys will show character and like I said, the squad is strong now and we have to keep playing like that. We have to keep plugging away to keep picking up points and we have to try and get as many points as possible from the last three games of Phase One.