Caernarfon 1 Bala Town 2

A FANTASTIC second half performance by Bala at a storm-battered Oval on Friday night gave the Lakesiders a winning start to their JD Cymru Premier Championship Conference campaign.

Two second half goals by goal machine Chris Venables on his 450th appearance in the JD Cymru Premier saw the visitors overcome a one-goal deficit at the break.

Played in front of Sgorio cameras in gale force winds and driving rain, it was a difficult night for both teams with keeper Josh Tibbetts called into action first as he denied Sion Bradley with a solid low save from 18 yards out.

A couple of minutes later, Town were awarded a penalty when Venables was brought down in the box by Leo Smith. The striker aimed for the top corner but the spot kick was blazed high and wide and the score remained at 0-0.

Despite the penalty miss, this didn’t affect the Lakesiders’ performance as they dug deep and had numerous opportunities to open the scoring with Venables heading wide, Lassana Mendes guiding an effort past the post after a break through the midfield and Shaun Kelly’s bullet header going inches over the bar.

However it was the home side who went ahead on 33 minutes. Picking up possession on the halfway line, Smith’s crossfield ball found Darren Thomas who laid it off to Noah Edwards who drilled the ball into the bottom left hand corner from 17 yards.

Bala came close to levelling minutes later when Henry Jones’ goalbound half volley from distance was brilliantly tipped over the crossbar by Alex Ramsay prior to a superb move involving Jones, Mendes and Smith setting up Venables but his flicked header flew narrowly wide before the interval.

With Oliver Shannon introduced at halftime for Shaun Kelly at the back, there was fresh impetus with the Lakesiders early on in the second period as they tested the home side much more.

Mendes’ delivery found Venables but he glanced the ball over the bar with the weather conditions turning worse and making it even more difficult for the players.­

The home side had a decent spell of pressure but the Bala back four were dealing with any crosses and breaks which gave Bala confidence going forward.

Good play on the hour resulted in Andrew Burns not getting a clean connection with his cross into the area which Ramsay was able to collect.

After 66 minutes of play, Bala were level. The move began in the centre circle with Nathan Burke combining with Mendes and winning a throw which was taken quickly by Shannon.

The ball was cleared back towards the halfway but headed clear by Stephens to newly introduced substitute Steve Leslie who knocked the ball perfectly into an unmarked Venables who tidily slid the ball into the back of the net.

Bala were applying pressure as they hunted for their winner with Leslie setting up Robles but his delivery was cleared before Bradley headed wide from Edwards’ ball down the other end.

Ten minutes from time, Bala earned their winner. Shannon and Mendes allowed Robles to break on the right for Mendes to then recollect the ball and whip in a pin point ball to Venables on the six yard line to loop his header into an empty net to seal the three points.