Manager Mark Aizlewood heaped praise on his Carmarthen Town side after they unexpectedly brought The New Saints unbeaten run to an end on Saturday.
Liam Thomas grabbed the only goal of the game on the stroke of half-time to hand TNS their first defeat of the season.
The result brings an end to a staggering run of form for the Saints. Their streak saw them unbeaten in 31 games across four separate competitions – even more remarkably, 30 of those games had ended in TNS victories.
Carmarthen however have been steadily improving throughout the Dafabet Welsh Premier League season under Aizlewood’s astute leadership.
Having secured a top-six finish in the first phase of the league season, Carmarthen have now taken maximum points from their opening Phase 2 matches which began with another impressive victory against Connah’s Quay last week.
The Old Gold relish their underdog status and their growing self-belief, good organisation and collective work-rate created the perfect storm at Richmond Park, in which the part-timers found themselves able to record an unlikely result at the expense of high-flying TNS.
They were able to weather extended periods of pressure from TNS, who desperately sought to extend their run as they close in on yet another league title.
“In all honesty, we don’t have any right to beat TNS,” Aizlewood reflected after the game.
“The resources they have are by far and away above what we could ever hope to have here – but what we can do, and what we’ve proven is that when the referee blows the whistle, we can compete on the pitch.
“I have a group of players who’re honest, who belief in what we ask them to do.”
The visitors were repeatedly thwarted by Carmarthen until a training ground move late in the first-half saw Liam Thomas head home Matthew Thomas’ corner.
“It was a corner that we had worked on – we know we’re not going to get a lot of ball against TNS,” he added. “We worked hard in training last week on set-plays and it worked perfectly.
“Sometimes in football, we’ve done things and tried things before and we’ve gotten beat by five or six against TNS so you don’t always get it right but today everything that we hoped for worked out.
“I made three changes today from a team that won away at Connah’s Quay but the players believe in what I ask them to do and believe in my experience. The hard part is that the players then have to go out onto the pitch and do it.
“People came here today more in hope than exception – and maybe I was one of them – I just set us up today to try and get a point but we did better than that. I’m actually very proud to be manager of Carmarthen after a performance like that and what the group of players that we’ve put on the pitch have done for the club.”
A full roundup of all the weekend’s Dafabet Welsh Premier League action will be online tomorrow.
Championship Conference: Bala Town 3-1 Cardiff Met, Bangor 2-1 Connah’s Quay, Carmarthen 1-0 TNS.
Play-Off Conference: Airbus 0-0 Llandudno, Cefn Druids 2-1 Aberystwyth, Newtown 3-2 Rhyl.
