CARDIFF MET 4

BALA TOWN 3

A SPELL of three Met goals in the space of just five minutes played a huge part in a losing weekend for Bala Town.

The Lakesiders' defensive woes came to haunt them yet again on Saturday afternoon at a glorious Cyncoed campus.

Travelling to Cardiff Met on the back of four consecutive defeats, Bala’s hopes of finishing third were riding on sealing the three points and hoping for a Bangor City loss on Sunday versus Cefn Druids.

The visitors started well and they thoroughly dominated the first half, putting pressure on Met from the outset.

Deliveries into the box by Evan Horwood and Mike Hayes weren’t capitalised upon by Town in the opening 10 minutes, however they did take the lead after a quarter-of-an-hour.

Mike Hayes drove into the box and as he arrived at the goal-line, he impressively lobbed keeper Dan Evans from an extremely acute angle to deservedly put the away side ahead.

From the restart, Town could have made it 2-0.

Nathan Burke’s ball allowed Chris Venables to break, but his shot lacked a curl and it went inches wide of the far upright.

Bala were passing the ball around well and creating problems for Met, but their lack of a cutting edge was becoming frustrating as the home side were able to hack away any opportunities.

Met had a superb opportunity to level on 33 minutes when Eliot Evans blazed over the bar, while minutes later the same player went even closer when his strike rattled the post, with Jordan Lam unable to put away the follow-up.

The home side did eventually level things up in the 40th minute.

Jordan Lam’s deceiving strike from 30 yards flew into the net to make it one-apiece.

Town were punished even further in a poor end to the half, with two goals in two minutes on the stroke of half-time putting Cardiff Met well clear.

Will Evans was left unmarked to slot in a cross from the right and then Eliot Evans caught Town out on the counter attack to notch home goal number three after a delivery from the left.

Now finding themselves trailing, Bala had a mountain to climb at the start of the second half.

Their chances kept coming, though, with Evan Horwood blazing over a free kick from 25 yards out, before Kieran Smith headed narrowly over the bar.

Chris Venables, who was making his 400th Welsh Premier League start, rattled the bar with a header from five yards out, but he was deemed offside with Bala looking to get back into things.

And so they did on 66 minutes.

Ian Sheridan and Kieran Smith worked well to put on pressure in the box, which resulted in Venables knocking the ball over the line from close range.

Again, Town were dealt another sucker-punch only three minutes later.

Met went on the counter attack, which saw Ben Bowler head home unmarked to make it 4-2.

Bala again tried to respond and substitute Les Davies linked up with Venables to set up Smith, but his scorpion-esque kick was saved by Evans.

The game took another twist in the 77th minute when Bala’s hopes of a comeback were on again.

A loose ball arrived at the feet of Evan Horwood some 20 yards out and he instinctively drove a fizzing effort into the bottom corner of the net.

The Lakesiders sensed a point was there for the taking and with 10 minutes left, a ball from Horwood arrived towards an incoming Venables, but his leap was an inch or so short and the ball narrowly went wide.

Down the other end, Jordan Lam should have put the game to bed for Met when his shot rebounded off the post, bounced across the face of goal and into Ashley Morris’ arms.

Bala’s late pressure wasn’t enough and Met held out to secure all three points from what was a cracking game of football... for the neutrals watching!