2011 Review

2010-11 Season

Town finished 11th in what proved to be a difficult season for the Lakesiders. After the split in January things picked up as the transfer window opened.

Terry McCormick, Mike Hayes, Mark Connolly and Ryan Marriott (both loans) joined the side in January.

Town went on to get 13 points out of a possible 30 with wins over Aberystwyth, Carmarthen, Haverfordwest County and Airbus to finish 11th out of 12 in the 1st season of the Super 12 League.

In March we were denied our Domestic Licence at the first attempt but were subsequently granted the license on appeal. This still left us in a precarious position but surprisingly Connah´s Quay (Huws Gray Champions last season) were denied theirs which enabled Bala to take their place in the league for their third season.

Summer Activity

June saw our brand new website launch with the help of GrandOldTeam.com and has already had over a million hits its first 6 months of existence.

The summer transfer window started early with Colin Caton determined to strengthen his side.

Mark Jones and John Irving led the way in early June by committing to the Lakesiders for another season. Both were joint appearances holders with 31 appearances in 2010-11. Jonah had an exceptional debut season and was nominated in the WPL Team of the Year and took a clean sweep in the Club´s awards.

Danny Williams, Ross Jefferies, Steve Morrison, Ste Fisher, Chris Mason and Terry McCormick followed suit after a mass cull of players left Maes Tegid.

Town surprised many with the unveiling of high profile signing Lee Hunt on a two year contract in June which showed how serious the Club were about making 2011-12 a success.

Mike Byron was next to join the Lakesiders from Northwich Victoria. Mike immediately built up a partnership with Stuart Jones who joined from Chester in the same week.

Both centre-backs have been incredible for Town so far with the 3rd best defensive record in the league which, along with the experience of Danny Williams gave Bala Town a record of not conceding a goal in 537 minutes of football early on in the season.

Aberystwyth duo Stef Edwards and Conall Murtagh joined in July and both have been influential in Town´s success. Irishman Conall has been in the heart of midfield since the beginning of the season and hasn´t missed a match so far in 2011-12. Conall has been so influential in doing the unsung but so important tasks in midfield.

Pacy left back Stef has been tearing up numerous defences with pace to burn but also getting back to support his own defence.

The midfield was next to be bolstered. With Jones and Murtagh already signed it was great to see another 4 midfielders join them - Peter Doran, Liam Loughlin, Stephen Brown and Mark Connolly signing up.

Mark Connolly had returned to Chester after his loan spell but made his move permanent and the freekick specialist has already won Goal of the Month for September and got his tally up to 10 in all competitions. Stephen Brown and Liam Loughlin also have opened their goalscoring with 5 goals between them.

We have a mixtures of experience and youth and this reflected with the rest of our signings. Australian goalkeeper Mark Pullman, left winger Rees Darlington and local lads Mike Sharples and Ilan Hughes were last to frame up our 21 man squad.

With this amount of changes it was thought it would take time for everyone to gell - however this wasn´t the case as immediately the new Bala Town side won 5 out of 7 pre-season friendlies and confidence was high going into the 1st match away at TNS.

2011-12

Colin Caton´s men would have to start the season without their leader as he was serving an 8 match dug-out ban.

Town kicked off the league but TNS opened the match better than the Lakesiders opening the scoring after 3 minutes but top scorer from last season Chris Mason equalised to open his tally and send the Lakesiders top of the league overnight.

The Lakesiders went unbeaten then for 5 games with wins at home against Carmarthen and Port Talbot and away games at Newtown, Aberystwyth and Prestatyn.

Mid September we were brought back down to earth with losses at home to Llanelli and Bangor and away to Neath.

October saw us on TV again away at Afan Lido and again we went 5 games without a loss. Not only were we not conceding but we were scoring goals which in the previous season had been lacking.

At the end of November we faced the big 3 again and managed to get a point from a 0-0 draw at home to Neath.

This period also marked Colin Caton´s 350th in charge of the Lakesiders in his 9 seasons at the helm at Bala Town.

In December Lee Hunt was awarded Goal of the Month of November with his chip from 25 yards at Port Talbot.

We were given an away tie at Merthyr Saints in the Welsh Cup. The Lakesiders came away 6-0 winners against the lowest ranked team in the competition. It was great to visit a new team and we had a magnificent welcome from them and we wish them well for 2012. This game also marked Bala Town´s 200th win under Colin Caton´s leadership.

Before Christmas we broke the 1000 followers mark on Twitter and 700 likes on Facebook.

Boxing Day saw us win at home to Airbus and secure our place in the top 6 of the WPL and finish 2011 on a high.

We have already added versatile Ben Collins to the squad in the January transfer window in what promises to be an already exciting 2012 for the Club.

We have broken many milestones and achieved things we could´ve only dream since the Wrexham Area days.

In conclusion this year has been incredible - but let´s make 2012 even better and more memorable yet.

As a Club we would like to wish our supporters, players, management team, sponsors, twitter and facebook followers and everyone who has been involved with the Club in someway a Happy New Year.

We hope to see you all back at Maes Tegid in 2012.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda gan bawb yn CPD Y Bala.

Happy New Year to you all from Bala Town F.C.

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