BALA Town and Flint Town United settled for a point each in a hard-fought opening day encounter at Maes Tegid on Friday evening.

Despite their struggles in pre-season, Flint's manager, Lee Fowler, will be encouraged by his team's performance, which saw them create numerous scoring opportunities.

After making a positive start, the visitors fashioned the first opening when Isaac Lee strode out of defence towards the half way line before finding Elliott Reeves on the edge of the area.

The left-footed forward evaded Ross White’s challenge but his shot from a tight angle found the sidenetting.

Reeves had another chance just a few minutes later when a through-ball put him in on goal, but solid defending from Bala forced his effort wide.

But it was Steve Fisher’s charges who broke the deadlock in the 19th minute, slightly against the run of play.

A corner from skipper Nathan Burke was met by Mohamed Mehasseb, who stretched a foot out to poke the ball home and put the Lakesiders ahead.

Flint responded swiftly. A deflected shot from Benn Wynne was parried by Bala goalkeeper Joel Torrance, and while Reeves fired the rebound into the side netting, the equalizer wasn't far off.

Wynne himself levelled the score with a stunning 15-yard volley just before the half hour mark after some great build-up play from Ben Hughes, new signing Jake Canavan, and Darren Stephenson.

Before the half-time whistle, Bala's Louis Hall forced a fine save from Flint's keeper, Jack Flint.

But the visitors nearly took the lead just before the break, only for Torrance to produce an outrageous save to deny Hughes, the ball landing on top of the bar.

The follow-up shot from Stephenson curled just wide of the post.

The second half failed to live up to the standard of the first as the game became disjointed, and clear-cut chances were few and far between.

Jack Thorn and Wynne went close with early half-chances for the visitors, while Bala's Mehasseb shot over the bar from a good position.

Flint had a final opportunity to snatch all three points when captain Harry Owen ran onto a cross from Thorn, but his effort went well wide.

After the match, Bala boss Steve Fisher reflected on the result: "It’s one of those games where both managers will be pleased just to get on the board with a point.”

The manager, in charge of his first JD Cymru Premier match after Colin Caton stepped down at the end of last season, added: “You always want to win, but if you take a step back and have a look at it, a point was probably a fair result."