BALA Town will be eager to keep their title challenge alive in the Dafabet Welsh Premier League when they take on leaders The New Saints in a top of the table showdown at Park Hall, Oswestry on Saturday (Ko 5.15pm).

The defending champions are currently five points clear at the top, and the Lakesiders will be fully aware that a defeat would hand the Saints the title.

This time last year, the Lakesiders were 18 points behind the Saints, but with three games to go, they have a chance to move within two points of the leaders.

"We can now go there in our next league game with everything to play for," said Bala’s Director of Football, Colin Caton.

" We’ve drawn with them three times this season, and it would be a great time to get our first win against them and be the party poopers."

Whilst Bala had no action last weekend, the Saints marched on into the JD FAW Welsh Cup Final after a convincing 5-0 victory against Gap Connah’s Quay on Saturday.

Manager Craig Harrison was delighted with how the players responded having lost the previous two matches.

"Since I have been manager, we have not lost two games in a row and that is going back nearly five years so it was a little bit of a test," said the former Middlesbrough player.

"We set ourselves such high standards by winning a treble last season that there is not much room for mistakes."

"I have a lot of options and it is always hard to pick. It is the hardest part of the job.

"You only have to look at the bench on Saturday which consisted of Mullock, Baker, Wilde, Cieslewicz and Draper and all of those players would get in any team in the league.’

He added: "If somebody would have said to me that with three games left you’ve got a home game to win the league, be in the Welsh Cup Final and having already won the League Cup, I would have bitten your arm off."