08.11.08 Carmarthen Town 1 Prestatyn Town 0

Having seen his side win by the narrowest of margins despite dominating for long periods Town coach Mark Aizlewood said,“Yes it was hard work in making the three points safe but I thought the players were excellent. It was as comprehensive a 1-0 victory as you could possibly get. I thought we dominated them physically throughout and we created an enormous amount of opportunities really.

“You are always fearful when you only have one goal. I always thought that the goal would come but the key to games like that is that when you get your goal you have to make sure that it is to put you in front. So the key is a clean sheet because we will score eventually”.

“We will create an enormous amount of opportunities but we will only take a percentage, we can’t really change that. We are not suddenly going to find a fifty goal a season striker here so we just have to get on with it”.

Of the opposition Aizlewood said,” I thought they prepared well. They came down overnight so they turned up with a freshness and spirit about them you would expect from a side that has been, in the last twelve eighteen months, reasonably successful. They got promotion and they are doing OK in the league. But I always felt that, and I will against anybody, back our fitness over ninety minutes and I think that was crucial today”.

“They (Prestatyn) started going down with cramp; they started getting little niggling injuries and became more and more desperate in their defending. We just needed to, only once, pick the right pass, to the right person, in the right position and you win the game. And that’s what happened”.

 “I thought their No11 (Ian Griffiths) and No9 (Jon Fisher-Cooke) were decent players. Their attacking four were quite lively. But I thought we dealt with it reasonably well, we restricted them in ninety minutes to what I would call one opportunity”.

Aizlewood explained why he felt that the sending off did not give Town any great advantage. “The way that the game was at that point when he (Hayes) got sent off it was never going to have a terrific change in it because they were at that point getting a little bit desperate in their defending, defending deep and showing very little on the attack.

"So when the lad gets sent off the game is still in the same area of the pitch that it was before that so our numerical advantage is only in our own half. So it’s very difficult to make that count in a tactical sense. Once we got the goal we didn’t want to flood people forward and get caught with a sucker punch”.

Aizlewood felt that the new system of play makes it more difficult forindividual players to stand out. “I thought Richard Hughes was superb today.  Ironically enough keeping your discipline and doing the right things was vital and Nicky Palmer’s energy is amazing. It is very difficult sometimes within the system that we’re trying to play for individuals to sparkle or to shine. So they are all giving workman like performances.

Looking forward to the Newtown game Town’s coach felt that recent performances and results would give his squad confidence, “We’ve had two setbacks one at Welshpool and one at home to TNS. At Welshpool we didn’t play for 45 minutes but against TNS we were superb but we conceded goals. We again had a very workmanlike performance in difficult place to go in Cefn Druids and got the three points. It was difficult opposition today in as much as the way that they set themselves up but we got the three points so we are going into Newtown on the back on two very good performances, six points and a full squad to choose from so that will give us confidence”.

Deryn's Dugout