BALA TOWN 3

RUSHALL OLYMPIC 0

THE Lakesiders have ended their pre-season with a comfortable win.

Bala Town’s 2019/20 pre-season came to an end on Saturday afternoon with an excellent 3-0 success against Rushall Olympic.

There was a quick start to the game at a muggy Maes Tegid, with both sides trying to get the ball on the floor nice and early.

Rushall saw a free kick being cleared by the Bala backline, while down the other end Chris Venables saw various chances going over the bar, being saved by the keeper and flicked wide from a Nathan Burke corner.

After 18 minutes of play had elapsed, Bala were ahead.

An impressive passage of play on the left saw the ball arrive to Lee Molyneux, who showed superb vision to find and set up Louis Robles and he coolly slotted home to make it 1-0.

Bala grew in confidence after the opener with and they causing a few problems at the back for the visitors.

Robles brilliantly forced the centre half to make a mistake, which Lassana Mendes almost took advantage of when his close range effort was blocked by the keeper.

Prior to the break, Robles headed narrowly over the woodwork from a Mendes delivery, before Rushall had the ball in the back of the net, but this was ruled out for offside.

The second period saw Bala do even better than in the first half as fitness showed and they were able to rotate their squad, introducing fresh legs.

Robles had the ball in the net, but he saw his strike ruled out, before Molyneux’s low left-footed effort was palmed away by the keeper.

After 67 minutes, Town doubled their advantage.

A corner by Molyneux arrived to Robles, who out-jumped his marker to head home his second of the afternoon.

A minute later and it was game over.

A break by Town saw the ball fall into Venables’ path and he fired in on the half volley from close range to make it 3-0.

However, the visitors weren’t giving up just yet.

After a quick attack, their pacy centre forward placed the ball wide of the upright and then Sean Smith was called into action to make a superb goal-line clearance to deny the visitors a goal.

In the closing stages, the Town management gave debuts to Jack Jarvis and Cai Aykroyd, who had been promoted from the reserve squad for the afternoon.

Both had half chances each to add a fourth for the Lakesiders.