DRUIDS STILL ON TRACK IN EUROPE

CEFN Druids boss Huw Griffiths had mixed feelings after his men were held 1-1 by Lithuanian side FK Trakai in their UEFA Europa League preliminary round first leg tie at Park Hall.

The Ancients were in dreamland three minutes after halftime when James Davies put them in front and seemingly on their way to a first-ever European victory.

Davies was then denied a second with his curling effort forcing an excellent save from Trakai stopper Tomas Švedkauskas but with just four minutes remaining the visitors bagged a crucial away goal through Donatas Kazlauskas, who only seconds earlier had seen an effort cleared off the line by Nathan Peate.

Griffiths said: “We are absolutely delighted with the performance and the way in which we’ve gone about it. However, the boys have got to be disappointed to concede so late on.

“Their fitness told in the end; we had a couple of boys who cramped up and had to come off and I think that ultimately led to them getting their goal.

“They’re a quality, fully professional outfit who are 19 games into their league season and in the end that showed.”

It leaves the Druids still with everything to play for heading into Thursday’s second leg in Lithuania with FC Irtysh Pavlodar of Kazakhstan awaiting the winners in the next round.

“I think it’ll be a bit different when we go out there,” added former Bangor City man Griffiths.“They’ll know a lot more about us, they’ll have done their homework – but we’ve got to go and score. All we can do is try and get the first one and give them something to think about.”

Meanwhile, it was a night to forget for Bala Town who were defeated 3-0 by SP Tre Fiori of San Marino in their first leg tie played in Forli in Italy.

A calamitous defensive error saw the hosts take the lead when Anthony Miley’s back-pass from distance somehow beat his own keeper Ashley Morris.

Then another defensive mistake saw Tre Fiori double their lead on 32 minutes as Morris’ clearance wide on the left went straight to striker Giacomo Pracucci who drilled the ball into an empty net.

Mirco Vassallo then struck a third from outside the box into the top corner four minutes later to leave Bala shell-shocked.

Chris Venables hit the underside of the bar in the dying moments but this result leaves Bala with a mountain to climb heading into Thursday’s second leg at Rhyl.