BALA Town returned to winning ways in the JD Cymru Premier with a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Llanelli Town at Maes Tegid on Friday evening.

After a difficult run of four defeats and a draw—their last win coming at Colwyn Bay on 23 September—the Lakesiders secured all three points thanks to an early goal from Olamide Ibrahim against the league’s bottom side.

The hosts nearly opened the scoring in the 12th minute when Louis Hall’s corner, carried by the wind, curled towards the far post and clipped the top of the bar, almost catching out Llanelli keeper Alex Pennock. Moments later, Bala made the breakthrough as Ibrahim linked up with Hussein Mahaasseb before calmly slotting the ball under Pennock from close range.

Despite the lead, Bala struggled to carve out clear-cut chances, relying heavily on percentage play. McGiveron surged forward and laid the ball off to Mahaasseb, but his long-range effort failed to trouble the Llanelli keeper.

In the second half, Mahaasseb found space inside the box and got a shot away, but Pennock saved well and the danger was cleared. Soon after, Lasanna Mendes latched onto a loose ball and volleyed goalward, only for Pennock to collect comfortably. Mendes then delivered a superb ball across the face of goal that deserved a finishing touch, but it drifted out for a corner.

As the match neared its conclusion, Bala keeper Joel Torrance produced a crucial save to deny Llanelli a late equaliser. The hosts then managed the closing stages expertly, winning three corners deep into stoppage time to see out the result.

Bala manager Steve Fisher said: “It was a scrappy game. Before the game I would have taken a scruffy 1-0 win, and that’s what it was, a scruffy 1-0 win.

“They’re a good side, make no bones about it. Lee (John) has got a really well organised, good set of lads there.

“And they’ve had some real good results in the cup. They beat Haverfordwest 3-0 who are a real good outfit.

“So we know on their day they can beat anybody. So we had to be defensively resilient and we needed to nick one going forward and that’s what we did.”

He added: “We’ve been on a bit of a rough run. We said last week that we needed to stop the rot and we got a draw at home. Could have won that game, easily won that game against Barry last week.

“We didn’t, we got a 0-0, so it made today even more important.”

Bala now prepare for their trip south to face Briton Ferry Llansawel on Saturday.