BALA Town stepped up preparations for the away leg of their Europa League tie aganst Tre Fiori of San Marino on Thursday, with an impressive 2-1 friendly win over Welsh Premier League champions The New Saints at Maes Tegid.

Goals from Chris Venables and Keiran Smith ensured that the Lakesiders registered a convincing win, and they will go into their European showdown with real confidence this week.

“If we were to go on and progress in Europe this year, it would be absolutely fantastic for everyone who is involved, and without a doubt it would be one of the biggest things I’d have ever done in football,” said Bala boss Colin Caton.

“It has frustrated me massively over recent years that we haven’t progressed as much as we’d have liked, but sometimes in football you just don’t get your rewards.

“I’m really hoping that this time will be different. Everyone will be 100 per cent focused, and we will do everything we can to progress, so let’s just see what happens.“I think if we made the kind of progress we want to make in Europe, it would be our biggest achievement during my time at the club, perhaps topping the Welsh Cup Final win against TNS.

“The difference is that it isn’t simply Bala flying our flag in Wales, but in games like this we’re also flying the flag for Wales as a whole.”

There were plenty of positives for the new-look Bala squad to take from their final pre-Europe friendly fixture against The New Saints on Saturday.

The Saints had opened the scoring when Ryan Brobble into the roof of the net, after Greg Draper’s ball had been blocked by the Bala defence, but the Lakesiders responded positively

Bala fought back, with new signing Andy Mangan looking lively, and when Mike Hayes was brought down, Chris Venables a free kick blazed over from long range.

Bala were level on 25 minutes when Mangan’s through ball carved open the Saints’ back line, and Venables latched onto the ball and fired home from 15 yards.

The Lakesiders were growing in confidence with Andrew Burns curling over from 30 yards, and Mangan’s powerful looping strike went narrowly over.

Paul Harrison also denied Mangan before the interval, but the second half saw the visitors come out strongly with Ashley Morris called upon to block Daniel Redmond’s close range effort.

A Redmond free-kick then went wide, but at the other end Nathan Burke’s flicked header went just wide from Keiran Smith’s delivery.

It was Bala who took the lead on the hour mark when a quick break saw Mike Hayes put a teasing ball into the box, and a mix-up between Blaine Hudson and Harrison allowed Smith to head home.

The new-look hosts were looking strong on and off the ball, and their hard work in training was clearly paying off as they dominated the play against the full-timers.

Experienced striker Mangan saw a flicked header pushed onto the post by Harrison, and then Sean Smith decided to pass to Mangan rather than shoot.

Venables hit a free kick over, and Mangan also missed the target from 20 yards in the later stages.

All focus will now turn to Thursday’s away leg against Tre Fiori, and Caton believes his side will be prepared.

“We’ve had a lot of information about the opposition from The FAW Trust, which is great for us,” said Caton.

“It has been a bit distracting finding out who we could play in two or three rounds if we advance, because it is totally irrelevant. All we can focus on is our present opposition."We have to plan for San Marino, and then we have got to make sure that we do the best possible job we can, and we’ll then see how that goes for us.”

A regeneration of the squad has been undertaken at Maes Tegid in the past couple of months, with some half-a-dozen players leaving the club and a handful more coming in to replace them.

“I felt we needed to be better than we were last season, a lot better really, so that’s what has led to the changes we’ve made,” said Caton.

“The atmosphere and the work-rate in training is the best that it has been for a long, long time, so the changes have certainly had a very positive effect, and it’s exciting to see what can be achieved with this group.”