With Bala Town jetting off to face their Maltese opponents Valletta FC in the Europa League today, Lakesiders manager Colin Caton believes there are no excuses for his side if they make the same mistakes as years gone by.
The ever-present Bala boss admits that their Maltese opponents have strengthened well in the time since being beaten by Newtown five years ago.
Despite restrictions from Covid-19, the Lakesiders have managed to prepare well and will feel that there is something of an even playing field with Valletta’s season also prevented from getting underway.
And with new signings of their own, Caton believes his group have the right mentality to progress to the next round.
“If we make the same mistakes that we made in the last game which we should have progressed then there’s no excuses this time,” Caton said.
“We can’t fall with silly mistakes like we have done in the past.
“We’re well prepared, we’ve brought new players in, the new signings have come to us and we’ve got a good focus at the moment.
“Hopefully we can hit the ground running and we’ve got a good group, we’re really fit, we’ve got no excuses if we go out there and lose.
“With restrictions from COVID-19 put on us, we’ve had to fight through the three phases which has been a bit of disruption, but we’ve managed to get some good quality pre-season friendlies in.
“We started with friendlies with Crewe, Shrewsbury and TNS whereas always in the past we’ve been in so early it’s been difficult for us to get decent opposition.
“Valletta haven’t got one player left in the squad that played against Newtown, so I think they had a frustrated period of time then. They’ve invested massively and they’re a lot stronger now than what they were.
“They’ve brought in three new players in the last two weeks, a Brazilian centre-forward and left-back and a Slovakian centre back so they have strengthened massively.
“They’re the big hitters of the Malta league and so it’s going to be a really difficult side for us.”
With both Bala and The New Saints in European action tomorrow, results so far have not favoured Welsh sides with Barry Town suffering a 5-1 defeat to Faroese side NSÍ Runavík, and Connah’s Quay falling 2-0 to FK Sarajevo.
Despite the surrounding disappointment of the Linnets defeat, Lakesiders boss Caton empathised with the struggle of trying to progress in Europe, citing their own difficulties in the past.
Reciting their downfall against SP Tre Fiori in 2018, the 3-0 first-leg loss against their opponents from San Marino was too much to overcome despite a 1-0 victory in the reverse fixture.
The defeat allowed their Sanmarinese opponents to be the first from their country to progress from a European tie.
The Lakesiders are now playing their first qualifier in two years after losing on penalties to Cardiff Metropolitan in the 2019 play-offs.
And with the Cymru Premier restart date recently announced, Caton is also looking forward to returning to normality as soon as possible and get things back up-and-running.
“I didn’t see the Barry game, only the result and Gavin’s interview and we’ve found it difficult to try and progress too,” he continued.
“ SP Tre Fiori, the team we played from San Marino in 2018, our preparation was fantastic, the way we approached the game, we had a great chance of going through and after 10 minutes we’re 2-0 down.
“You can’t legislate for mistakes that can be made on the night, so we have to be a lot better than what we have been.
“We are quite an established team in Europe in terms of Welsh football now, but I think if we had been at Rhyl, it would have been a lot better for us to approach it rather than us travelling to Valletta.
“With the restrictions that are on us, plus the heat as well is going to take its toll on our lads, whereas our record at Rhyl is very good.
“It’s been difficult, I’ve been speaking to a lot of managers from the leagues below in the Cymru Alliance and they’ve found it quite hard.
“They are many weeks behind us, so we can’t grumble really.
“Our lads didn’t do anything for five months, that was difficult for us mentally to get them going and they weren’t allowed out as we were in lockdown, so it’s been tough times for everybody.
“As soon as we can get it back up-and-running and definitely get fans back in the grounds, I know there are a lot of people upset that fans won’t be able to watch with restrictions from Covid-19, but that’s more important than football.
“Football needs fans and everybody needs to get back to a normal life as quick as we can.”
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