The New Saints 2-0 Bala Town: Saints forced to settle for second despite hard-fought win
OSWESTRY, ENGLAND - 15 MAY, 2021: Ben Clark of The New Saints celebrates scoring his sides first goal The New Saints v Bala Town in the Cymru Premier Championship Conference at Park Hall on the 15th May 2021. (Pic by Lewis Mitchell/FAW)
The New Saints were forced to settle for second place in the Cymru Premier despite a 2-0 victory over Bala Town at Park Hall.
The Saints took the lead within the first ten minutes with Ben Clark dribbling the ball around Harri Lloyd into an empty net.
Ryan Harrington was sent off 19 minutes in for fouling Kieran Smith and TNS went down to ten men. A second goal was added with just under ten minutes played in the second half as the ball got played to Adrian Cieslewicz in the box who scored past Lloyd.
TNS dominated the match early on with scoring the opening goal settling down the team down. However, the red card changed the match around and for the rest of the first half the home side were on the back foot with Bala attacking. TNS held out until the break and got their groove back in the second half and doubling their lead with the Cieslewicz goal. From there TNS coped with the ten men and won the game.
The result leaves The New Saints finishing the season in second place after Connah’s Quay Nomads got a 2-0 victory against Penybont in Bridgend to win the title two points ahead. Going into the game, Bala Town already sealed their place in Europe finishing above Penybont to get third. TNS will now go into the UEFA Conference League qualification.
The New Saints took the lead in the tenth minute of the game as ball was past through to Ben Clark who went round Harri Lloyd to score into an empty net.
In the 18th minute, a ball got crossed into Will Evans who headed wide for Colin Caton’s Bala.
A minute later Ryan Harrington was sent off as Kieran Lewis was running at the Saints goal with Harrington taking Lewis out and the referee got a red card out of his pocket with Harrington leaving the field.
Few seconds after, the resulting free kick from Cymru Premier top scorer Chris Venables went just over the crossbar.
Just short of the half hour mark, Kieran Smith had a shot from just outside the TNS box for the Lakesiders that just went off target.
In the 35th minute, Chris Venables had a shot from outside the home side’s 18-yard area that powered across Paul Harrison’s goal and off target.
At the start of the second half, Andrew Burns had a shot from 30 yards out that blazed wide of the TNS goal.
With 54 minutes past Adrian Cieslewicz doubled the TNS lead. Cieslewicz had a shot in the Bala box and scored past Lloyd’s left into the corner.
Just past the hour mark, Will Evans had a shot for the away side from 20 yards out that curled wide of the goal.
In the 85th minute, Henry Jones got an opportunity from outside the 18-yard area that Paul Harrison managed to gather easily.
Bala had one more chance to get a consolation goal in the dying seconds of the match with a ball getting whipped into Kieran Smith who flicked it on that Harrison managed to save.
The New Saints: Paul Harrison, Chris Marriott, Keston Davies, Jon Routledge, Ryan Brobbel (Leo Smith 71’), Adrian Cieslewicz (Tom Holland 79’) , Jamie Mullan, Ryan Harrington, Ryan Astles, Louis Robles (Greg Draper 79’), Ben Clark.
Goals: Ben Clark 10’, Adrian Cieslewicz 54’.
Yellow Cards: Anthony Limbrick 62’.
Red cards: Ryan Harrington 19’.
Bala Town: Harri Lloyd, Andrew Burns, Sean Smith, Nathan Peate, Anthony Stephens, Will Evans (Liam Davies 73’), Kieran Smith, Anthony Kay, Daniel Gosset (Henry Jones 60’), Lassana Mendes (Steven Leslie 57’), Chris Venables.
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