Haverfordwest County 3 Bala Town 0 JD Cymru Premier – Conference

HAVERFORDWEST County extended their lead at the top of the Conference table to three points with a comprehensive 3-0 win against Bala Town at the Ogi Bridge Meadow Stadium on Friday evening.

With Cardiff Met held to a 1–1 draw by Llanelli Town, the Bluebirds secured a third win of the season over the Lakesiders without conceding.

First half goals by Kyle Kenniford and Corey Shephard and a late third by the increasingly influential Shephard delighted manager Tony Pennock who recently extended his contract to 2029.

He said: “I thought our performance, especially in the first half, was exceptional.

“I though the boys were excellent. We’ve been like that for a few weeks now, training’s been really god tempo and our performances in the first three games, we can’t ask for any more.”

On Shephard’s performance he added: “Corey’s been fantastic since I’ve been here. This season he’s played out of his skin to score the goals he has and the assists. He’s just getting better and better with age.”

After a balanced opening spell, County struck first on 26 minutes with a direct, route‑one move. Keeper Ifan Knott launched a long ball forward that Bala failed to clear, allowing Ben Ahmun to pounce. His initial effort was parried by Joel Torrance, but Kyle Kenniford reacted quickest to fire the loose ball into the far corner.

Moments later, the hosts almost doubled their advantage in similar fashion. Kenniford latched onto another long kick from Knott and squared to Dan Hawkins, whose powerful strike forced Torrance into an excellent save.

But Bala’s reprieve was brief. From the resulting corner, Corey Shephard unleashed a superb strike from outside the box, arrowing the ball into the top corner to give Torrance no chance and put Haverfordwest firmly in control.

County continued to dominate after the break. Abbruzze saw a goal‑bound effort cleared off the line by Digby, Greg Walters forced Torrance into another smart stop, and Abruzze again went close when he fired across goal and narrowly wide after breaking free down the left.

Ahmun tested Torrance once more with a fierce effort, but the Bala keeper could only delay the inevitable. With 10 minutes remaining, Shephard struck again, bundling the ball home at the second attempt to seal a deserved three points for the home side.

Bala mustered a rare late chance when Connor Evans forced Knott into a save, before Abruzze sent a stoppage‑time effort just wide at the other end.

Reflecting on the defeat, Bala boss Steve Fisher admitted his side were second best.

“I thought we were poor first half. We got blown away. They were really, really good and we were really, really poor,” he said. “We changed it slightly at half time and I thought second half we were a lot better, but the game was over by then.”

Fisher insisted his squad will keep fighting.

“When you’re up against it you’ve got to go down fighting. We’ll fight for every single point for the rest of the season. We’ve got a really good group of boys in the changing room. We were poor tonight. I praise them when they’re good — we were really good last week against Cardiff and should have won. But we didn’t deserve anything tonight.”