Brennan hails brave Tudors after spirited FA Cup effort

Hemel Town manager Dean Brennan. Picture (c) Cameron Maclean - CM Photography

The Tudors were just a few minutes from recording a memorable 1-1 draw against their League Two opponents, but ultimately fell just short.

“I can’t knock our players’ desire, work ethic, belief, togetherness; everything you need for success at a football club,” said Brennan.

“They’ve just got to have a bit more belief in themselves, in their own abilities, because a lot of them are young lads. People like Kyle Connolly should be playing at this level.”

The Tudors were under the cosh for large spells in the second half as Bury poured forward in search of an equaliser, but it looked as though Brennan’s side would hold out for the draw.

However, they were hampered by a couple of enforced substitutions in the second half which ultimately proved costly as Bury’s fresh legs came to the fore.

“We came here with a gameplan but our game is built around James Potton really so him coming off with a quad injury was a tad frustrating,” Brennan said.

“We could see that the goal was coming. We had no real substitutions left them because of the two substitutions we were forced to make so that deviated the game plan a little bit.

“We had wanted to get our pace on in the second half and stretch them, and hopefully create some chances of our own.

“At 2-1 we had a fantastic chance from a Danny Talbot header from a diagonal ball so the breaks weren’t really with us. But we can’t complain; they had a couple of penalty shouts that I thought were penalties to be fair.

“I looked up at the scoreboard and they had got in behind us a couple of times so I thought the goal was coming.

“It was a fantastic finish on the half-turn; it was Mark Hughes-like. All of their goals were good and we can be proud that we haven’t given away any silly goals.”

The Hemel fans were in fine voice throughout the game and continued to support their team for the full 90 minutes – something which did not escape the attention of Brennan.

“They have been the 12th man for us since we got into the playoffs in my first season in 2012/13,” he said.

“They have been fantastic, the Tudor Army – we are just proud of them and proud of the town.

“Hemel hasn’t really had any sporting achievements to chat about before so all in all we are just delighted.”

Talking about his opponents, Brennan added: “I was really impressed with Bury. They have a fantastic philosophy and are really nice on the eye.”