Haverfordwest County 3 Bala Town 2

JD Cymru Premier Championship

HAVERFORDWEST picked up a rare win against Bala Town as the JD Cymru Premier Championship got underway over the weekend.

The Bridge Meadow Stadium hosts squandered a glorious chance to open the scoring on 21 minutes when Corey Shephard beat a couple of markers on a surging run into the area but his shot when clear through was deflected past the post for a corner.

Another chance for the Bluebirds followed when a long throw-in bounced in front of Bala keeper Joel Torrance, but two Haverfordwest players went for the same ball and it ended up clearing the bar.

But it was the Lakesiders who took the lead just after the half hour mark when Louis Robles used his strength to outmuscle Jacob Owen in a shoulder charge before dinking the ball to the back post for Osebi Abadaki to head past home keeper Zac Jones.

The home side nearly equalised moments later when Ben Ahmun placed a pinpoint ball towards Ben Fawcett in the box, but Torrance was there to collect the resulting effort on goal.

But the Bluebirds did manage to draw level before the break from Rhys Abbruzzese’s corner.

Greg Walters headed the flag kick across the face of the six-yard box where Dan Hawkins was lurking to finish from close range.

The Bluebirds came out with real purpose in the second half and nudged ahead after the hour when Abbruzzese beat Uniss Kargbo for pace down the left flank and his cross found Hawkins in space on the edge of the area to unleash a low driven effort into the corner.

It went from bad to worse for Bala moments later when they failed to clear a long range free kick by Zac Jones, Ahmun pouncing on the loose ball to make it 3-1.

Caton rang the changes with Joe Malkin, Dan Malone and Callum Edwards coming on to replace George Newell, Lassana Mendes and Abadaki and it was game on when Aeron Edwards reduced the deficit with 10 minutes to go.

But Bala’s hopes of a comeback were dented when Nathan Peate was red carded for a rash challenge on 85 minutes and the hosts held on for the win.

Bala boss Caton said: “I thought we were really good going forward today.

“It was an equal game in the first half and then I thought they were the better team for 30 minutes after half time.

“When we made the subs that changed it and we got to 3-2 and I thought we could have gone on to win it but the sending off killed us a little. But still even with 10 men I thought we were going to go on to equalise.”