Bala keep TNS in check

THE New Saints manager Scott Ruscoe has warned his JD Cymru Premier League rivals that his side are yet to get out of second gear despite watching them extend their unbeaten run to 10 games with a 1-1 draw at Bala Town.

The 13-time Welsh champions were on the back foot for large spells of their top-of-the-table clash at Maes Tegid on Saturday night.

But they managed to escape with a point after Ben Clark scored with his first touch, before Chris Venables headed in his 11th goal of the season for Bala.

TNS remain five points clear at the summit of the Cymru Premier, but Ruscoe reckons there is much more to come from his men.

“We’ve had eight wins and two draws during this unbeaten run, I would have possibly taken that before the season,” he said.

“We’ve only conceded five goals in 10 games, but we always want more, we always want to be better. We can improve defensively and work on areas we saw tonight.

“I’m disappointed with the draw but when you get a goal against the run of play at that point you can’t be too disappointed.

“We expect more, we always expect more, I expect us to be better on the ball in both halves. I thought we did okay in the first half in terms of defence but we weren’t clicking.

“We played some tidy football but where was the end product?

“We have to have a look at it, some bits were really good but at times we were waiting for something to happen.

“We’re not like that, we play on the front foot and get at teams but I don’t think it clicked for long periods.”

The hosts were on top for large spells but found themselves behind with only 12 minutes remaining after the introduction of Clark.

The 20-year-old raced onto Ryan Astles’ pinpoint 70-yard diagonal ball and lobbed Alex Ramsay to make it 1-0.

But another substitute, Lassana Mendes, made a similar impact as he cut in from the right and lifted a cross on to the experienced head of Venables, who made no mistake from 10 yards out.

“Ben chipped the keeper really well and credit to him, that’s his fourth goal now,” added Ruscoe. “When you score in the 78th minute you expect to see it out but we just couldn’t defend.

“It was a good cross from them but that’s what they’re about. We just switched off and needed to be tighter to him.”