CAERNARFON TOWN 2

BALA TOWN 2

IT was a tale of two halves in a fiercely fought Gwynedd encounter at The Oval.

A 900-strong bumper crowd witness an absolute cracker of a game on Friday evening, with two very different halves of football in a game between Caernarfon Town and Bala Town which could have swung either way.

The first half saw a below par display from the Lakesiders, with the home side having most of the play.

Bala's start was pretty uneventful, with Nathan Burke's shot from around 20 yards taking a slight deflection, but Ramsey collected with ease in one of the away side's rare first half opportunities.

Caernarfon took the lead after only 11 minutes.

The influential Danny Brookwell collected the ball around 20 yards out, cut into the box and drove an effort low into the far corner of the net.

Bala were looking very out of sorts and the Cofis rattled the crossbar with a further attempt.

Another let-off for the Lakesiders came in the 31st minute when lack of communication between Morris and Jones saw Thomas pick up the loose ball, but his shot went inches wide of the target.

This came prior to Breese firing wide too after Noah Edwards' flick on.

A minute into injury time and Bala were level.

Henry Jones superbly whipped a free kick to an unmarked Chris Venables, who powerfully headed in from 12 yards.

Bala's second half performance was much, much better, but Caernarfon managed to get their noses in front again.

Danny Brookwell went on a box-to-box run, weaving through the midfield and defence to coolly place the ball into the net in the 49th minute.

This lead was shortlived as Bala hit back for a second time. Jones' free kick was sliced by Nathan Craig into the path of Nathan Burke and he nodded on for Steven Tames to blast in from close range.

From then, the game really got going and it was played at a high tempo with both teams itching for a winner.

Midway through the half, Henry Jones had the ball in the net after an attack down the left, but he was deemed offside by the linesman.

Morris was called into action on 75 minutes, solidly blocking out Brookwell's opportunity, while down the other end a low effort from Jones lacked power and was collected by Ramsey.

Four minutes from time, Bala had a massive opportunity to earn themselves all three points.

A huge goalmouth scramble saw Sean Smith initially ping the ball out wide to Venables, who strongly shook off his marker and put the ball back to Smith.

His shot was palmed into Tames' path and the ball was hacked off the line to Hayes, but with Jones getting in the way, the chance was gone.