Bala Town 0 The New Saints 1

HALF TIME

With leaders Connah’s Quay Nomads falling to defeat this afternoon giving The New Saints the opportunity to go top, Bala have a tough test at Maes Tegid this evening as the Champions Conference gets underway.

And it was made tougher still when the visitors, with new head coach Anthony Limbrick at the helm, took the lead on seven minutes, Ryan Brobbel slotting the ball home after the ball bobbled around the box.

Antony Kay was cautioned early on for a foul in the middle of the park as the hosts struggled to get going with TNS asking all the questions.

The Saints were quicker to every ball but had Adrian Cieslewicz yellow carded for a foul on Ryan Pryce on 13 minutes, quickly followed by another foul which could also have resulted in a caution.

Even though the visitors were dominating possession they struggled to create clear-cut scoring opportunities with Bala hanging in there and slowly growing into it as the half wore on and starting to get a foothold in midfield.

It was turning into a battle which seemed to suit Bala and with only one goal in it the Lakesiders are still in contention going into the second half.