Battling Bangor take Euro race down to wire
BANGOR City enter their final league game of the regular season at Bala Town on Friday with a live chance of finishing Welsh Premier runners-up and qualifying for Europe.
Third-place City are level on points with Connah’s Quay Nomads, who occupy second spot with a better goal difference of plus three.
Nomads visit Cefn Druids on the same evening the Citizens are at Maes Tegid.
Bangor know they will finish second if they are victorious and the Quay either lose or draw at The Rock.
However, a win for both contenders would bring it down to goal difference.
City set up a last-day nail-biter after defeating Druids 1-0 at Nantporth last Sunday, Nomads having gone down 3-1 at champions The New Saints two days earlier.
Alex Darlington’s first-half goal was enough to seal the win for Kevin Nicholson’s side.
Druids made the more promising start, Arek Piskorski’s thirdminute deflected effort forcing a fine save from Matthew Hall.
However, it was Bangor who edged ahead in the 15th minute from their first corner.
Steven Hewitt swung the ball over and Darlington’s near post flick was allowed to find the net far too easily from a Cefn point of view.
City nearly added a second close to the break when Dean Rittenberg’s byline effort was pushed onto the post by goalkeeper Michael Jones and Fisnik Hajdari cleared off the line.
Bangor went close again twice at the start of the second period, Danny Holmes rattling the bar before Rittenberg’s delivery across the face of goal needed only a touch.
Cefn then raised their game, Michael Pritchard slicing wide from a great position before Nathan Peate narrowly failed to connect with an exquisite Alec Mudimu cross.
Bangor missed a golden chance on 82 minutes when Rittenberg smacked the crossbar from pointblank range via a Luke Wall cross and Darlington’s follow-up header was blocked.
Peate headed against the bar for Druids in added time before City rattled the woodwork for a fourth time when Wall struck the post from the final kick.
Bangor boss Nicholson was delighted to pick up three points after back-to-back losses against Connah’s Quay in league and cup.
He said: “We certainly deserved the win.
“Obviously, they were going to push all the way till the end when it was one, but I thought we played with a very good energy and intensity.
“It would have been nice to get that second goal and maybe a third, but it wasn’t meant to be. Nonetheless, a win’s a win and it was nice to get back to winning ways.”
Looking ahead to the Bala test, Nicholson added: “The challenge was to take it to the final game and we’ve managed to do that.
“What will be will be - anything can happen in the final game.
“We’ll go to Bala in high spirits and hopefully get another win.”
Before Friday, Bangor City expect to hear tomorrow whether the appeal against the first-up refusal of their Domestic Licence application has been successful.
Without the licence, the club cannot compete in the Welsh Premiership.
Club secretary Gwynfor Jones said on Sunday he expects a positive outcome.