Bala Town 1, Prestatyn Tn 1

And the Lakesiders were hoping for a repeat of the result in the reverse of this fixture, where a brilliant strike from inside his own half from Mark Connolly being enough to give the visitors all 3 points in a 1-0 win.

​Any hopes of a repeat of the previous result were almost dashed as early as the second minute, as Prestatyn player/manager Neil Gibson ghosted into the Bala box after being played in by Ross Stephens, and he looked certain to score as his shot beat Terry McCormick, but he was unable to celebrate, as he saw his shot crash against the post.

​Bala thought they had scored in the 15th minute, as Prestatyn gave the ball away to Bala captain Mark Jones near the half way line, Jones then played a brilliant pass to Chris Mason, who chipped the ball over Seasiders keeper David Roberts, but the goal was disallowed for offside.

​With 5 minutes to go before the interval, a long Mark Jones run saw Bala get 3v2 near the Prestatyn box, but Jones took a touch too much; which enabled David Hayes to make a tackle before Jones could find either Chris Mason or Mark Connolly.

​The deadlock was broken in the final minute before the break, as Prestatyn’s Michael Parker looked certain to score as he shot from just inside the penalty area; but his shot hit the post; but luckily for him Neil Gibson was the first to react to the loose ball, and he tapped the ball home for his second goal in as many games.

​The first action of the second half saw some good build up play end with Mark Jones collecting the ball on the edge of the box, before unleashing a curling shot; which went narrowly over the crossbar.

The scores were level on the hour mark, as Stephen Brown played a pin-point cross on to the Chris Mason’s head, who was able to put the ball right into the top corner of the net.

The ball was so far in to the corner that it hit the stanchion holding the net up!

Shortly afterwards Bala came close to having an opportunity to take the lead, as Mark Jones played in substitute Liam Loughlin, whose shot was spilled by David Roberts; but he was able to recover and knock the ball out for a corner before either Connolly or Mason were able to get a tap in. Michael Byron headed the ball over from the resulting corner.

In the 87th minute it looked like Mark Connolly was going to give Bala a late lead, as he got his head on to the end of a corner; however David Roberts had other ideas, as he pulled off a world class save to tip Connolly’s close range effort wide to ensure his side got a share of the spoils.

Photo: Evan L. Dobson

• Tags:
• Prestatyn Town