County finished the pre-season unbeaten, rounding off their warm-ups with a 4-3 win at Caersws. Manager Derek Brazil rested a few players, most notably Mark Dodds, Kyle Graves and Jack Christopher for this final friendly, but even so the South Wales Bluebirds always looked comfortable against their mid-Wales opposition, even after they went behind in the 20th minute.
Within 5 minutes County were level, when Neil Thomas fired home a tremendous shot from the right hand corner of the box, and were tow one up by half time courtesy of a Lee Hudgell strike. The score could have been 3-1, but Thomas was unlucky, when he got open on the right hand side and hit the post from a vey acute angle.
In the second half, local boy Rees Dalling, who came on for an injured Steffan Williams in the first half, came more into the game and had several chances, one of which was cleared off the line by a desperate Caersws defender. Lee Hudgell and Jack Jones also had fine games.
County extended their lead in the second half to 3-1, with Ritchie Evans scoring his first goal for the club, and even though Caersws pulled back two goal to level the score, Vincent Ateuyi came off the bench and was in the right place at the right time to turn and fire home Neil Thomas’ through ball from 8 yards.
After the game Derek Brazil cautioned against being too optimistic. “Preseason games  are notoriously deceptive” he said. “Next week will be different, players will have a different mind-set because they know that it is for real, and we have to be ready for that. I am pleased that we have been unbeaten, but that means nothing. Next week is what counts”
Still, he must be pleased that the way in which his squad have played, and the results that they have earned.
The new season starts for real next Saturday when County are at home to Newtown. Fans are advised that the kickoff time is 2:00pm. In fact all Saturday games in the WPL will kick off at 2:00pmn this season with the exception of the live broadcast on S4C.
Haverfordwest County: Lee Idzi; Jack Jones; Terry Evans; Lee Jarman; Kristian Griffiths; Tom Ramasut; Jamie Bradford; Steffan Williams; Lee Hudgell; Richard Evans; Neil Thomas. Substitutes: Chris O’Sullivan; Vincent Atueyi; Rhys Dalling; Mark Evans.