BALA Town booked their place in the JD Cymru Premier Championship Conference for the ninth successive season with a comfortable 3-0 win against Gwynedd rivals Caernarfon Town.

After beating the Canaries 5-1 at the Oval on Boxing Day, Colin Caton’s men shaped up as the better team once again in the return at Maes Tegid on Friday.

Kieran Smith returned to the starting 11 replacing Luke Wall, with captain Chris Venables returning to the bench following suspension.

After the visitors’ Rob Hughes went into the book early for leaving a late challenge on Kieran Smith, Bala were forced into an early change when keeper Alex Ramsay had to be replaced by Harri Lloyd after picking up an injury.

The Lakesiders were offering plenty of threat going forward and they reaped their reward on 18 minutes when George Newell was played through on goal by Dave Edwards, and slotted the ball under the advancing Josh Tibbetts.

More Bala chances followed with Tibetts called into action again to keep out Adam Roscrow’s curling effort which seemed destined for the top corner and he came to his side’s rescue again with another top save to gather Newell’s header.

The keeper was keeping the Cofis in the game but he was beaten again five minutes before the break.

Edwards pounced on a poor pass in midfield by the visitors and fed the ball to Roscrow who advanced to the edge of the area to finish into the bottom right corner for his seventh goal of the campaign.

Caernarfon came out with a bit more ambition in the second half and nearly got back into it when former Lakesider Danny Gosset fired on goal but Harri Lloyd was untroubled.

They continued to press with Rob Hughes sending an effort just past the post and Lloyd was called into action to maintain Bala’s two-goal advantage on 79 minutes, to collect Darren Thomas’ shot.

Skipper Venables came on three minutes later to replace Newell who had put in a great shift and he was soon in on the action when he was clattered in the area when poised to shoot.

He dusted himself off and blasted the penalty past Tibetts, the ball crashing against the bar but bouncing over the line to make sure of the three points.