Bala Town U12's 2, Flint Tn U12's 1

Bala knew they had to respond positively and get a result.

The game started quite lively as Bala were eager to take the game to Flint with Rob Dascalu turning the defender and shooting from the edge of the box and forcing the keeper to push it out for a corner.

The hosts looked very dangerous on the attack with Gethin Evans very prominent in midfield and creating several chances, mainly to Tomos Jones who was a threat all game with his pace; from one of his runs he timed his run great from an excellent through ball by Gethin, he cleverly guided the ball passed the advancing keeper, however, the ball narrowly went wide.

The visitors were also looking to win the game as they also looked dangerous going forwards, but were thwarted by the defence of Flynn, Gwion, Ifan and Isaac Eds, however, when they did manage to break the defence Cai was always alert enough to come off his line and help protect the goal.

Bala took the lead, from one of their numerous corners, with Andrew driving the ball goal wards, which was cleared to Gethin on the edge of the box who struck a clever volley with his weaker foot into the corner, excellent technique!

Tom nearly doubled the lead with a great through ball by Andrew Paps, he managed to round the goalkeeper but with the angle against him he couldn’t quite score. Flint were forced into long range efforts which Cai was equal to them.

On the stroke of half time the visitors were given a soft penalty as Jake brought down their winger, but to Jake’s defence he seemed to get the ball first and made no contact with the player.

Their No. 10 stepped up and scored on the re-take, with Cai getting a hand to both attempts.

Clearly Bala had to improve on their poor first half and get a better foothold on the game and to their credit, for the first 10 minutes, they did do better by playing some quicker football and neat one-twos, while looking to get the wingers involved.

Andrew and Tom’s pace were a constant threat to Flint’s defence but were unlucky not to create any clear cut chances.

Credit must go to both sides as their commitment to the team was excellent with everyone giving 100% and battling hard to win the ball back, which created a quite scrappy game, with neither team controlling the game.

The decisive goal came as Bala once again forced a corner (their 11th of the game), Tom Mann delivered a dangerous cross which went straight across goal, where Jake made a late run and tapped the ball in – an excellent example of taking a chance in the box.

The last 5 minutes did get a little bit nervy as Flint were pushing for that equaliser, but with Cai in fine form in the goal and the team’s battling performance they restricted Flint’s efforts.

An important morale boosting win for Bala, following two defeats on the bounce, but certainly the performance will need to get better in the next few weeks if this team needs to progress further in the competition.

Owain Williams

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• Under 12's