BALA Town extended their unbeaten run on the road in the JD Cymru Premier after defeating Cefn Druids 3-1 at The Rock.

The Lakesiders are yet to lose away from home this season and have only lost once overall - a 2-1 loss to Haverfordwest County back in October.

Saturday afternoon saw Bala, who are third in the league, face bottom of the table Druids.

After the departure of Bruno Lopes this week, the Ancients had a point to prove as they had potential new manager Curtis Woodhouse in the stands watching.

The hosts started brightly and took the lead on six minutes, former Lakesider Stefan Edwards collecting an excellent pass from Joe Faux on the edge of the area to rifle the ball into the bottom right hand corner to make it 1-0.

Bala weren’t at their best in the early stages. Defender Nathan Peate saw his soft glancing header fly wide of the upright and Antony Kay's powerful drive from the edge of the eighteen yard box went comfortably over the crossbar.

Bala boss Colin Caton replaced Kieran Smith with Steve Leslie in an effort to change things for the visitors after twenty minutes of play.

With half an hour played, Bala were back level as a delivery on the left arrived to skipper Chris Venables who superbly struck it on the volley only for Druids keeper Michael Jones to palm it back into the path of Ollie Shannon who fired in the rebound (below).

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PIC: Hannah Gwenllian Jones.

A series of opportunities came for Bala before the interval which should have seen them take the lead.

It only took four minutes of the second half for Bala took the lead - a shot by Venables was blocked before Shannon once again picked up the loose ball to tuck the ball into the net.

Bala were relentless with their pressure once they look the lead with wave after wave of opportunities to extend the lead.

Will Evans glanced Pryce’s teasing ball inches wide of the far upright, a Leslie delivery was also headed wide from Evans before Kay and Ryan Pryce combined and made it a hat-trick of chances for Evans to get on the scoresheet.

The hosts were doing well to ride out Bala’s constant pressure but were dealt a blow on 67 minutes as Stefan Edwards brought down Raul Correia in the area for a penalty. Up stepped Venables to secure the points for the Lakesiders.

In the 74th minute, the team from The Rock should have had a penalty of their own when Peate made a fierce challenge on Simpson but the referee continued play.

A disagreement between Steve Leslie and Ryan Kershaw saw the Bala man sent off with Kershaw given a warning meaning the Lakesiders had ten minutes to play with ten men.

There was the a memorable moment late on when Raul Correia was replaced by Danny Gosset who made his first competitive appearance in almost 18 months following his battle with cancer.

There was plenty for the Druids to ponder about after three defeats on the bounce whilst the Lakesiders’ unbeaten away record continued as Shannon stole the show.