Venables on mark to give Bala advantage

COMETH the hour, cometh the man! And in the case of Bala Town there is no bigger or better man than skipper Chris Venables.

In the high stakes game against Newtown it was the striker’s cool head that earned the Lakesiders a 61st-minute goal to beat their biggest rivals for the second Uefa European football slot next season 1-0.

It was the fifth time this season Newtown had failed to win against Bala and allowed their hosts to build up a clear threepoint lead in the battle for second place in the Championship Conference in the JD Cymru Premier.

Venables struck with an overhead kick after a Dean Ebbe cross from the left had caused problems in the Newtown defence. The master goalscorer needed no second invitation to strike and Dabe Jones had no hope in the Newtown goal.

With two games to go, Bala now lead Newtown by three points and a game at Caernarfon on Monday to come and then a home clash with Penybont in round 32. Newtown host The New Saints on Monday and finish off with a trip to Flint.

Anthony Limbrick’s TNS side, crowned champions weeks ago, turned on the style for their home fans with a 7-0 thrashing of Flint. There was one more goal for top scorer Declan McManus to take his league tally to 22, a hat-trick for Jordan Wiliams and further goals from Ryan Brobbel, Blaine Hudson, Adrian Cieslewicz helped himself to two and Ben Clark.

In the other game in the Championship Conference, Caernarfon Town heaped more misery on JD Welsh Cup finalist Penybont as they beat them 1-0 thanks to an own goal n the 90th minute from Kostya Georguevsky.

Cardiff Met slid from first to fourth in the Play-Off Conference as they were beaten 2-0 at the Deeside Stadium by Connah’s Quay Nomads. Goals from Paulo Mendes and Byron Harrison earned the Nomads a victory that puts them in with a chance of topping the table with two games to go.

Haverfordwest are now on top thanks to a 2-0 home win over Barry Town United. Jordan Davies scored both goals to take them back to the top.

Meanwhile, Aberystwyth Town hit Cefn Druids for six as they triumphed 6-0.

Lee Jenkins, Steff Davies (2), Louis Bradford, John Owen, Alex Darlington were on target to heap more misery on the Druids, who had goalkeeper Michael Jones sent off in the 34th minute.