BALA TOWN ..............................................2

CARDIFF MET ...........................................0

SECOND-HALF goals from Luke Wall and George Newell were enough to help Bala to all three points against Cardiff Met on Saturday on the Lakesiders’ return to Maes Tegid.

Two goals within five minutes after the break saw Bala claim their third win of the league campaign, but it was a relatively even first half of football between the two sides, with the visitors coming close on several occasions throughout the first half.

Despite a equally contested first 45 minutes, the visitors looked to have the better clear-cut chances.

Harry Owen came agonisingly close for the visitors, after he got on the end of a cross around six yards out from goal, but his effort went blazing over the bar from close range.

Lewis Rees also came close to breaking the deadlock, as he sent a lovely curling effort towards Ramsay’s right hand side, but his effort ended up clipping the side netting without troubling the Bala keeper too much.

The closest Bala came to going in front was when Kieran Smith slipped in Ollie Shannon inside the box, however Met’s defence were able to clear out the danger for a corner.

Wall would be the only half-time substitution for either side as he replaced Ollie Southern, meaning there was a shake-up in defence for the home side in the second half.

And it didn’t take long for Wall to make an impact on the match, as he latched on to a clearance from a corner, and hit a sweet strike into the far right hand corner on the half volley, giving the Lakesiders the lead after 52 minutes.

Just five minutes later, it was 2-0 to the home side.

Lassana Mendes’ persistent pressure on the Met backline paid off, as he won the ball back after a Met clearance bounced off the number seven into space, and with his first touch, sent a ball right across the face of goal into the path of Newell who had the simple task of tapping home.

Bala were a different side in the second half, with almost every attack looking likely of resulting in a goal.

This time it was Chris Venables almost becoming provider for Mendes. The captain sent a superb ball over the top of the Met defence, with Mendes rushing in behind to meet the ball and with the cheekiest of attempts, tried to lob Alex Lang in the Met goal only for the keeper to back-track onto his line and push the ball over the bar for a corner.

At the other end, Ramsay pulled off a superb save to keep a clean sheet, as Sam Jones’ instinctive header on goal was met with a cat-like save from the Bala shot-stopper to keep the score at 2-0 and to wrap up a deserved three points.

Bala’s focus quickly turns to a midweek game as they take on Newtown AFC at Latham Park tonight (7.45pm ko).

Bala Town: Alex Ramsay, Oliver Southern (Luke Wall 46), Ross White, Nathan Peate, Naim Arsan, Antony Kay, Kieran Smith, Ollie Shannon (Paul Rutherford 87), George Newell (Adam Roscrow 79), Lassana Mendes, Chris Venables.

Cardiff Met: Alex Lang, Matt Chubb, Alaric Jones, Emlyn Lewis, Eliot Evans, Chris Baker, Lewis Rees, Harry Owen, Chris Craven (Cian Williams 73), Dixon Kabongo, Sam Jones.