BALA Town made a flying start at Penybont as they hammered five goals by half- time en route to an emphatic 6-1 win in the JD Cymru Premier last weekend.

Henry Jones got the Lakesiders off the mark with the first goal after only two minutes, before Chris Venables slotted home a penalty and Lassana Mendes added a third to put Bala in control.

Kieran Howard replied, but Louis Robles added a fourth, before Venables again scored from the spot, and Stuart Jones added a sixth in the second half.

Newly-promoted Penybont were chasing the game from the start as livewire Jones, coming into the starting team for Lee Molyneux, made an instant impact.

A ball came forward from Anthony Stephens into the path of Venables, who found Jones to fire low into the bottom left hand corner from edge of the box.

Jones fired over following a corner and then placed the ball wide, but with nine minutes played, Bala won a penalty.

Andrew Burns was tumbled in the box by Owain Warlow and Venables stepped up to blast the spot kick into the roof of the net, to double the visitors’ advantage.

Bala continued to dominate, with Nathan Burke narrowly missing the target from 25 yards, while Jones then saw his effort being saved by the goalkeeper.

They made it 3-0 on 26 minutes when Stuart Jones headed the ball across the face of goal for Lassana Mendes to get a crucial touch to turn it over the goal-line.

Penybont got back into it briefly when they broke down the right and Kieran Howard fired home, after Bala had failed to clear, but the Lakesiders added a fourth on 39 minutes when Louis Robles slotted the ball home from close range.

Worse was to follow for the hosts when Jones was tripped in the box, and Venables duly dispatched the ball into the left side of the goal to make it 5-1 at the break.

Bala could have gone further ahead in the second half when Henry Jones’ teasing cross rattled the woodwork, prior to Venables’ header being cleared by Bont.

A strike by Kieran Smith on the left was driven into the side-netting, before Bala netted their sixth goal of the afternoon.

A fantastic set-piece move from the edge of the box was brought into the area, and an unmarked Stuart Jones powered the ball home with a powerful header.

Bala continued to carve the home side open, and Venables had his hopes of a hat-trick dashed when his finish from 10 yards was disallowed for being offside.

PENYBONT: R Wilson, K Owen, K Howard (B Borge 60’), J Saddler, C Jemmett-Hutson, L Borrelli (K Georgievsky 55’), D Summerfield, N Wood, D Jefferies, O Warlow, M George (C Kinsella 46’). Not used: J Davies, O Dalton.

BALA: A Morris, A Burns, S Smith (E Horwood 67’), S Jones, A Stephens, N Burke, H Jones, S Leslie (K Smith 57’), L Robles (L Molyneux 75’), L Mendes, Venables. Not used: T Stephens. Ref: B Markham-Jones. Att: 186.