NEWTOWN 1

BALA TOWN 2

ANOTHER vital win means that the Lakesiders are keeping up the heat on the top-two in the JD Cymru Premier.

Saturday saw Bala Town head to Latham Park to tackle Newtown and the visitors secured a 2-1 success.

Bala began strongly with their high intensity play and they could have taken an early lead when Louis Robles was released and went one-on-one with Jones, but the keeper smothered the effort.

Down the other end, Fletcher fired over the crossbar to win a corner, with the resulting set piece being palmed around the post by Josh Tibbetts.

The hosts had a decent spell of pressure midway through the half, but Bala stood firm at the back and rode out the storm.

Henry Jones and Chris Venables linked up to set up Kieran Smith, but his strike was fired straight at Jones, prior to a massive opportunity that saw Venables being denied at close range by Mills-Evans, while Jones' follow-up rattled the post.

Town’s perseverance paid off as they scored two goals in two minutes.

The first came after half-an-hour as Ollie Shannon’s cross into the box wasn’t dealt with by Newtown, allowing Robles to react instantly and fire the loose ball into the far corner.

The restart followed and Town made it 2-0.

Henry Jones’ 30-yard effort deflected off Mills-Evans to Chris Venables, who took advantage of the napping Newtown backline to dance past Jones and score into a gaping net.

Bala kept the ball well until the interval and took in their 2-0 lead after an excellent first half display.

Newtown came out with fresh impetus in the second half, with Sheridan firing wide from the edge of the box and Rushton hit an effort over the bar.

Bala had a solid spell of pressure themselves, with Robles breaking free once again and squaring the ball to Jones, whose effort was placed over the crossbar.

Soon after, Kieran Smith got on the end of a brilliant passing move by Town, but his chance went over the bar.

Bala had the ball in the net again in the 69th minute.

Robles teed-up Venables to slot home, but this was deemed offside.

It was game on again as Newtown broke forward.

Mwandwe delivered a ball into the area and Sheridan headed home to cut the deficit.

With their tails up, Newtown had a series of corners and free kicks but Bala were able to clear all the efforts, before Tibbetts made an excellent reaction save to keep out Fletcher’s goalbound header.

The pressure from the hosts continued, but Town were standing firm and even with five minutes of injury time shown, they were battling for each ball and keeping their lead to seal a crucial win.

After the full time whistle, red cards were shown to Sheridan and Rushton for protests and dissent which didn’t involve any Town players.