ABERYSTWYTH Town manager Neville Powell is looking for his side to bounce back from a heavy defeat at high-flying Connah’s Quay when they return to Park Avenue with a crucial match against Prestatyn Town.

After excellent home wins over Newtown and Bala Town, their long Friday night journey to the Deeside was made doubly difficult by the adverse weather conditions, and Powell’s men crashed to a 5-1 away defeat.

Home manager Andy Morrison admitted that the scoreline flattered his side, but Powell is looking to his team to make a positive response in a real six-pointer against Neil Gibson’side.

“It didn’t help that four or five players only turned up half an hour before the game, due to the weather conditions, but it’s no excuse,” said Powell.

“Connah’s Quay are a good outfit, and are good at what they do, but we’ve now just got to make sure that we get ready for the Prestatyn match.

“It will be a very big game for us, every game will be a cup final for us now, there’s no two ways about it.”

Aber, Prestatyn and Newtown all remain locked on 15 points in the lower reaches of the table, but Powell’s men have now played one game more after their rivals’ matches were postponed.

Aber will take heart from their 2-1 win in the first battle of the Seasiders at Bastion Gardens in October, where they hit back from a goal down to deservedly take the spoils through goals from John Owen and Declan Walker.

Owen scored for the second successive weekend at Connah’s Quay, and the striker will be keen to build on his tally of four goals in six matches, as the competition for places hots up.

Geoff Kellaway showed his determination to get back to full match fitness with a run-out with the Under-19s the other week, whilst skipper Jonny Spittle, Luke Borrelli and Jack Rimmer are all pushing hard for starting places.

“We’ve still got to go to TNS, which will be really difficult, but we’ve also got to play Carmarthen twice and Prestatyn, and these are the games that we’ve got to look at to take maximum points from, if we can,” said Powell.

“The players realise that if we keep playing well and going forward like we are, we’ll be in a good position.

“We missed our captain; Jonny Spittle was out, but hopefully he’ll be back because we need him playing, because we conceded some poor goals.”

Meanwhile Connah’s Quay manager Andy Morrison, who watched the game from the stands as he was serving a touchline ban, admitted that the scoreline didn’t reflect the match.

“We’re delighted with the win, they came here in great form, and having scored a lot of goals, and you could see their threats,” said Morrison.

“It was probably not a 5-1 game, and it was harsh on them, but we scored at good times and took our chances.

“Aberystwyth were never out of the game, they were always pressing and asking questions of us. They have some good players, and are going to cause teams a lot of problems. I’m sure that they’re going to get results.”