BALA Town manager Colin Caton said that their Welsh Cup triumph was ‘the big one’ for the club after their dramatic 2-1 victory over The New Saints at Bangor.

The Lakesiders came from behind to shock the cup holders and Dafabet Welsh Premier League champions to win the prestigious cup for the first time.

“We never stop achieving, and making more history at this club, but this is the big one,” said the Bala manager.

“I don’t think they had that many chances, we defended really well in the first half.

“I can’t praise the lads enough for their endeavour, especially after going a goal down against a quality side.

“Some of our lads worked shifts last night so to turn up and play like that was fantastic against a full time side.

“Credit to TNS, they are an absolute top side, but we’ve stopped them doing the treble-treble today, and I think that it’s good for the league that we have.”

Meanwhile match-winner Kieran Smith dedicated the win to the supporters and officials of Bala Town FC.

“I can’t describe the feeling, it means so much to everyone at the club,” he said.

“We really wanted to do it for the likes of Nigel Aykroyd and Ruth Crump, and all the people who run the club and support us everyday, and the volunteers.

“You can see from the celebrations that this means everything, but the club has great belief and heart, and we knew we could do this.”Bala Town received high praise from Wales’ national manager Chris Coleman, for whom triumphing against the face of adversity is something that his team are all too familiar with.

“That’s what team spirit is all about, I always say that I think people misunderstand team spirit a bit,” he said.

“Team spirit is on the pitch, suffering together, coming through difficult spells, standing strong, and coming out of the other end of it, and that’s what Bala did.

“That’s what their players, their staff and their supporters all did. You could see what it meant to them at the end of the game and it was absolutely incredible. I’m really, really thrilled for them.

“I wasn’t here to support either team, I was supporting both teams. I wanted to see a good game of football – and I definitely saw that.

“Credit to Bala, they had to come through a little bit of adversity because TNS dominated for large periods, but they stayed in it together and it goes to show you just how far you can with the team spirit that Bala have.

“It wasn’t just team spirit though, Bala have some good players, they play some good football, they did very well on the counter-attack and they were brilliantly organised, so congratulations must go to them.

“Full credit to them, they hung in there, scored two good goals and the second was the pick of them all.”