BALA TOWN captain Chris Venables is leading the Golden Boot race once more as phase one of the JD Cymru Premier comes to an end.

The 35-year-old attacker earned the top scorer prize last season as he netted 22 goals in just 26 matches with the campaign ending early due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Venables has won the ‘Golden Boot’ four times in total, winning the prize on three occasions whilst playing for Aberystwyth Town between 2013-14 and 2015-16, netting 24, 28 and 20 goals to top the list before scooping it again last season with the 22 he scored for Bala Town.

This time around, he has already scored 19 times in just 21 league outings for the Lakesiders.

The club captain began his goalscoring form in the 2020/21 campaign with a double in a 5-1 win over Penybont bac in September.

Since then, he has scored against Haverfordwest County (1), Aberystwyth Town (2), Barry Town United (4), Newtown (1), Flint Town United (3), TNS (1), Caernarfon Town (1), Cardiff Met (2), Cefn Druids (1) and Penybont again (1).

Those goals helped Bala Town onto finishing in third place as phase one of the season came to an end on Friday with the Lakesiders beating Flint Town United 5-0 and Venables scoring a brace to set him on his way to a fifth Golden Boot.

The closest goalscorers to him in the league are TNS' Greg Draper and Connah's Quay's Michael Wilde who have both scored 13 goals.