Graham Ward reflects on AFC Bridgnorth’s draw with Worcester Raiders.
26 September 2020
@chaguejones
AFC Bridgnorth earned a late point in the first league game of the 2020/21 campaign with a late Andy Hartlebury header.
Ward was pleased with the character that the hosts managed to show again after the late comeback and penalty win against Wednesfield in the FA Vase just a week ago.
However, he understands that if his side had made their chances count, it could’ve been three points they walked away with after today’s game.
On the performance:
“I’ll be honest with you. I thought over the 90 minutes, getting a point was the least we deserved. They scored a goal, a good goal, with their first moment of real quality. I was more disappointed in the way the goal came about. We lost three tackles in the build up and to be fair to their number 4, he’s gone and smashed it into the roof of the net.
“It’s a massive point but to be honest with you, I am disappointed. If we’d have managed our chances better, then we could’ve gone on and won the game. I give credit to all of them, they all kept going and we will have to do that a lot this season.”
On the never die spirit:
“Listen I’m not going to sit here and lie to you. The last thing I wanted to do was to get off to a bad start. At least it’s something to have and sort of build off going forward. The spirit through the squad is second to none and that’s what makes me happy. With these lads, there’s always hope that we could go on and score a late winner or in todays case, an important equaliser against a good opposition.”
On Andy Hartlebury:
“Andy is a calm head and he’s an experienced pro. He’s been there and done it and everyone knows what he’s capable of talent wise. I was delighted for him because he’s had a tough time outside of football. He epitomises everything we say that there might be one more chance and we have to never give up as a team, even in tough situations.
“You have only got to look at Andy, Jase, Bukka (Buxton) who keep the team alive. They inject it into the lads to keep going and play with such a professional manner that it rubs off on the team and they want to die for us.”