Saints boss sees team hang on for valuable win

THE New Saints boss Anthony Limbrick was showing the signs of stress and strain at the end of his side’s 2-1 home win over Bala Town.

Having seen a 96th equaliser for Connah’s Quay Nomads ruled out against his side at the weekend, he had to wait until the final 95th minute on Tuesday night for Ryan Brobbel to come to the rescue with the match clincher against the Lakesiders.

The upshot of the late dram in both games means TNS now hold a seven-point lead at the top of the JD Cymru Premier league and have firmly established themselves as the team to beat this season.

Chris Venables gave Bala the lead from the penalty spot in the 17th minute after he was bundled to the ground and the linesman called over the referee to signal the foul.

The visitors held onto their lead until eight minutes from the end of normal time when Brobbel unleashed a thunderbolt from 25 yards that gave Harri Lloyd no chance in the Bala goal.

That set TNS on the hunt for a winning goal and once again Brobbel was the ‘go-to’ man as he headed home a Declan McManus cross from the final attack of the game. That is now 50 league goals for Brobbel and TNS are now nine games unbeaten.

“That was one of our toughest night. It was really stressful because Bala were excellent in the first half when they were much the better team,” admitted Limbrick.

“We had to change shape because of the job they did on us tactically. We changed a few things at half-time, pressed on and the players were fantastic in the way they kept going to the end.”

While it was another good night for the league leaders, it was another desperate evening for the reigning champions Connah’s Quay Nomads. Still smarting from their 1-0 home defeat to TNS last weekend, they went down 2-0 at home to Newtown.

Shane Sutton got the visitors off to a great start with a goal midway through the opening period and then they doubled their lead with an own goal by Danny Holmes just before the break. It was a win that moved Newtown up into third place, just ahead of Bala on goal difference.

Michael Wilde scored twice to take his goal tally for the season to nine as he pushed Flint Town United up into second place with their 3-2 win at Caernarfon Town. An Eliot Evans penalty earned Cardiff Met all three points in a 1-0 win at Barry Town United, while Penybont beat Haverfordwest County 2-1.