LEE Jones was understandably delighted after his side picked up a surprise but deserved victory over The New Saints on Friday night.

The joint player-manager played an integral role in the match, and was quick to praise the team for the job they did in sticking to the game plan to get the 1-0 victory over the defending champions.

He said: “We’ve not had the best of pre-seasons results-wise. But we have looked at playing a certain way with tonight’s game in mind and being really hard to beat.

“They’re a full time club and if we go open against them they’d probably end up winning by three or four.”

He added: “We couldn’t afford to go out there and be out of the game in the first 20 minutes. We set targets throughout the game.

“The first 20 minutes was vital. If we conceded early then, basically, the game plan is out of the window. We knew we were in for a tough test.

“We set a target of a clean sheet for the first 20 minutes. We had the penalty, obviously it would have been a bonus if we had scored it. We didn’t but, to be fair, we didn’t let our heads go down.

“At the end of the day we could have gone one of two different ways. Our heads could have dropped but, if you look at our squad, we’ve got experienced pros and young lads. They all played for the shirt and they dug in.”

Jones was delighted that The Ancients were able to keep TNS at bay for most of the match, making it difficult for them to break down.

He said: “We had TNS, the league champions, at home, and we stifled them for 70 minutes. To be honest they’ve not really created any chances.

“If you look at the stats they probably had 80 percent of the possession but not had a shot on goal. I had a chance in the first half, Ricky’s penalty, our goal and bits and pieces chances and on another day we might have scored a couple.

“We said the longer we stay in the game, the more chance we have of nicking it. We will always score goals. Ricky (Evans) from any set piece, Tim (Edwards) from any set piece, and the likes of myself.

“We’ve got quality all through the squad to score goals. We said if we can hold it to 0-0 with 20 minutes to go we might nick something and have something to hold on to.

 “If anyone had given me 0-0 I would have taken it. One-nil is a bonus.

“The game plan couldn’t have worked any better.”

While Jones was delighted with the win, he refused to get carried away and warned that there is still plenty of hard work to be done in the season, starting with next Friday’s game against Welshpool Town.

“We’re not going to get carried away,” he said. “We’ve just beaten the league champions but we’re not going to shout from the rooftops that we’re going to win the league because, in all probability, we won’t.

“Myself and Waynne are level-headed managers and we know that if we don’t perform to that standard against Welshpool next week, we’ll come unstuck.

“We now won’t accept anything less for the rest of the season. If we do we’ll come unstuck.”

He added: “We’ve set our stall out now. We have instilled in the players that we need to be hard to beat this year. And if we draw each game 0-0 or win most 1-0, we will be delighted.

“There’s one thing we’re not going to settle for is anything below what we had against TNS.

“We’ve set our standards in this game. Myself and Waynne have been involved in that and, if we slip below it, there’s not a problem of us to drop out of the team and give someone who has done it a chance.

“At the moment we’ve said to the 11 that started tonight ‘You’ve got the shirts. Keep them.’ On that performance you couldn’t keep any of them out.

“We’ve probably sent a few shockwaves through the Welsh Premier League with the result.

“One thing that we’re going to be this year is well organised and are going to be hard to beat.”

While the joint player-managers have told the players on duty in Friday’s win that they’ve got the shirts, Jones said he is looking forward to welcoming back players as they return.

He said: “We’ve got Mike Heverin and Darren Williams coming back and, as a new management team, it’s great to have competition for places which gives myself and Waynne a nice problem to have.

“It’s the worst part of the job to tell players that they’re not going to be involved. We’ve got 22 players but could only pick 14 on the night. It proved right against TNS but, throughout the season, it might prove wrong.

“We’re not going to get every game where everything is going for us. There are going to be ups and downs, but we’ve got to enjoy this up.”

 “If we can win every game 1-0 we’d be delighted.