THE NEW SAINTS 3

BALA TOWN 0

DEFENDING champions The New Saints have all but wrapped up another JD Welsh Premier League title.

The only game of the weekend in the league saw the Saints move closer to another league title with a 3-0 win over Bala Town.

Gathering one more point in their remaining five matches will be enough for The New Saints to start another title-winning party.

To those supporters watching, the 3-0 scoreline seemed a harsh one on the Lakesiders, who had chances on goal and saw plenty of the ball compared to previous visits to Park Hall.

There was a bright start to proceedings, with Bala putting successive crosses into the box in the first couple of minutes.

However, the Saints were their usual threat in front of goal, with Town number one Ashley Morris being called into action early on.

He made a superb stop with his feet to deny Greg Draper after five minutes, before making another strong save to deny the same player two minutes later.

Jamie Mullan was the next to test the visitors, but he pulled his effort wide from 20 yards, prior to Mike Hayes getting on the end of a cracking through ball at the other end.

The Bala striker timed his run perfectly, but his strike was saved by Saints' keeper Paul Harrison.

Bala had a decent passage of play midway through the half and they more than matched the home side.

A free kick was whipped around the wall by Chris Venables, but it was saved by Harrison, before Rob Pearson broke on the left and he was fouled, which resulted in another free kick, however this was blazed across the face of the goal.

Ryan Brobbel blazed a free kick from the edge of the box over the crossbar for the Saints, but a minute before the interval, the hosts took the lead.

Brobbel curled the ball home from just inside the area, with Bala’s appeals for offside being dismissed by the officials.

The second half started with a high tempo as the Lakesiders looked to get back into the contest.

Kieran Smith's attempt went wide of the upright and a couple of free kicks were cleared from the box by the TNS backline.

With 59 minutes on the clock, the home side doubled their advantage.

Substitute Dean Ebbe pounced on a mistake by Jones to fire home from 10 yards with his first touch of the game.

Understandably, that goal seemed to take the wind out of Town’s sails, but they did keep battling on and they should have been level after 67 minutes.

When Paul Harrison spilled the ball, Venables collected possession and fired towards goal, but Blaine Hudson was able to recover and then block Hayes’ follow-up attempt.

Jordan Evans curled a free kick over after Smith was bundled over, before Evans released Venables following a good box-to-box move, but the strike went inches over the woodwork.

Two minutes from time and a third goal was added to the Saints' tally.

Ebbe went one-on-one with Morris and coolly slotted the ball around the keeper to put the game firmly to bed.