Craig Harrison impressed with TNS effort as they go 13 points clear at top
Craig Harrison was impressed with the efforts of The New Saints as they moved 13 points clear at the top of the JD Cymru Premier.
A first-half brace from top scorer Jordan Williams sealed a 15th victory from 19 league games this season as Saints ran out 2-0 winners at Briton Ferry Llansawel on Tuesday night.
Head coach Harrison said he was “really pleased” with his team after securing another win, despite illness in the TNS camp.
“We’ve not said much about it, but we’ve got a bit of a break now, but we’ve been down to our bare bone with the players,” said Harrison, whose side do not play again until hosting Bala Town on Boxing Day.
“We’ve had a flu bug going around. We’ve had 10 players in the last 10 days and three members of staff having time off.
“We’ve stopped training sessions and broke training sessions up.
"We haven’t trained as much as we want, to try and break the back of the bug that’s going around the club, so really pleased for the boys there because probably five or six of them shouldn’t have played tonight.
“The same on Saturday and some of them played both games that really shouldn’t have played.”
Saints took a seventh minute lead as Jordan Williams converted an inviting low cross from the right from Dan Williams.
Jordan Williams doubled the advantage in the 33rd minute when he met Ben Clark’s corner from the left with a near post header high into the net.
Saints stood firm at the other end to register a clean sheet against a Briton Ferry Llansawel side which had beaten them 3-0 at Park Hall in the opening game of the league season.
Harrison added: “Really pleased for the boys the way we’ve won tonight. It wasn’t a classic, it wasn’t our usual pure football, but the conditions, the pitch, our situation, we had to do what we had to do to win the football game, and that’s probably pleased us more than anything else.
“Don’t get me wrong, our identity is passing the ball and playing football and playing exciting stuff.
“But it’s really nice sometimes on a grass pitch on a Tuesday night in South Wales, when there’s been a storm for two or three days and the conditions are tough, and we dig in and we get a clean sheet and a 2-0 away victory. We did really well.”
