Manager Tony Pennock admitted that his Haverfordwest County side didn’t do enough from an attacking perspective as the Bluebirds slipped to a narrow 1-0 defeat to Penybont at the Ogi Bridge Meadow on Friday evening.

Lewys Ware’s early strike proved to be enough to hand the visitors all three points on a night which saw almost 700 spectators in attendance for one of the highest crowds of the JD Cymru Premier season to date.

County stayed in the contest right until the end, and had a couple of close calls in the latter stages, but it wasn’t to be on an ultimately frustrating evening for the Town.

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

On the result

“We huffed and puffed, but once they got the goal ahead it was always going to be tough because we’re lacking in confidence, we’re not scoring goals, and that carried on again tonight. We were relying on somebody to do something special and, unfortunately, we’re just looking a bit toothless at the minute, in all aspects of our attacking play.”

On the performance

“Penybont are a very good side. They’ve had their injury problems this year, which has probably cost them a top six place, but we can’t keep making excuses for each other. At times, I thought we passed the ball well, but we just didn’t really go anywhere, didn’t break them down. They were well organised, got men behind the ball and worked hard to nullify our threats.

“We changed personnel, we changed formation three times, but whichever way we tried, we just couldn’t break them down tonight, and it’s a disappointing evening.”

On staying in the fight

“I give the lads credit, they kept going until the end, we had a couple of scrambles in their box in the last couple of minutes, and the keeper has made a really good save with Dan Hawkins. When you see that back, he’s four or five yards out, doesn’t quite catch it, but the keeper has still made an excellent save. If that goes in, you nick a one-all and we move on to the next week, but it wasn’t our night. Sometimes you have to make your own luck, and we weren’t quite good enough tonight to do that.

“We’ve stayed in every game in Phase Two. The results haven’t gone our way, but there’s only been one goal in both defeats and three draws, but we need to find a way of getting the first goal and getting on top of teams, but at the minute we just don’t seem to be able to do it. But we keep trying, keep working hard and hopefully they’ll come sooner rather than later.”

On the Playoff Conference opponents

“The bottom six was always going to be extremely tough this year. We started in seventh and we’re still in seventh irrespective of what happens tomorrow. Everybody in the bottom six is capable of beating each other. We’ve seen that already in the five games we’ve played. We’ve seen it with other teams’ results as well, and we’ll see it between now and the end of April, but all we can do is give our best. We’ll keep trying. The boys will keep working hard in training and hopefully we’ll get that first win that we need pretty quickly.”

On the home support

“We’re well supported at home. In fairness, Penybont brought quite a number of fans themselves. They’re a very well supported club, and their fans were in full voice this evening. The support was excellent, and we’re really appreciative of that. They keep coming in in numbers. Unfortunately, we haven’t given them what they wanted to see again this evening, but like I said, we’ll do everything we can to turn it around and get a positive result and performance next Friday.”

On the remainder of the season

“We’re still in seventh, and we’ve still got a great opportunity. We’ve got to believe in each other, and when we get that first win –  hopefully it’s sooner rather than later – that will kick us on.

“What we’ve got to do is work hard for each other and back one another for the rest of the season.”