Bala Town 0 Haverfordwest County 2

JD Cymru Premier

BALA Town dropped to fifth place in the table following a 2-0 home defeat against Haverfordwest County on Friday evening.

There was a positive for the Lakesiders as Lassana Mendes came off the bench for his first league outing of the season but there was also more misery for the Maes Tegid hosts as they lost Christian Norton to what seemed like a serious injury.

Bala almost made the perfect start as Nathan Peate found himself completely unmarked in the box but failed to find the back of the net with his headed effort.

There was little to choose between the two sides as the half developed with defences on top and neither keeper called upon to make a meaningful save.

The visitors’ best effort came when Alaric Jones’ cross found Corey Shephard in space in the area but his header drifted harmlessly wide of the post with Bala keeper Joel Torrance beaten.

Norton went down with his injury in the 36th minute and was replaced by Uniss Kargbo with 11 minute added to the first half.

The hosts nearly opened their account in the 49th minute when Osebi Abadaki was in on goal but his shot was too close to County shotstopper Zac Jones who was able to block the effort out for a corner.

The Bluebirds nudged ahead moments later when Shephard and Kyle McCarthy worked the ball to Ben Fawcett on the edge of the area.

He cut back inside and unleashed a curler that scraped inside the post giving Torrance no chance.

Dan Malone and Joe Malkin were replaced by Hussein Mehasseb and the returning Lassana Mendes on the hour as Bala pushed to get back into it but the game was put beyond them when the visitors doubled their tally with seven of the 90 to go.

Substitute Rhys Abbruzzese had shout for a free kick on the edge of the area waved away and Bala lost the ball as they tried to counter.

The ball came back to Abbruzzese on the edge of the area and his shot found the bottom corner for his first goal of the campaign to take the Bluebirds up to second spot.

Bala boss Colin Caton said: “We weren’t sharp enough in the final third, we didn’t create anything. We didn’t work it down the channels to get better balls into the box.

“We were just pumping it in and it wasn’t good enough.

“But a massive plus was to get Lassana Mendes back on the field tonight. He’s been missing all season really since the Nathaniel Cup in Ruthin.

“And Louis Robles is about a week away so once we get them back we’ll be in a better position.”