Penybont 3 Bala Town 2

JD Cymru Premier Championship Conference

THE Lakesiders’ dismal phase two start continued with a fifth successive defeat after a much improved performance.

Colin Caton’s depleted team looked like they had done enough to take a point when Joe Malkin equalised with a quarter of an hour to go but James Crole struck a dramatic late winner in the sixth minute of added on time.

Caton said: “It was a depleted squad but good enough team to have gone on and won it.

“I thought we were the best team in the game but if you don’t defend really well and get out of the box with crosses coming in you’re always going to be vulnerable to conceding goals.

“The three goals that we let in were absolutely horrendous but I thought we were really good going forward.”

He added: “They’ve celebrated as though they’ve won the Champions League today but that’s good, it shows the type of game that we’ve given them.

”If you take eight or nine players out of their team it might have been a different thing.

“But there’s no excuses, we should have won today.”

Bont took the lead on 10 minutes through their top scorer Crole with a composed finish into the bottom corner after good interplay between Keyon Reffell and Gabriel Kircough.

At the other end Bala nearly drew level with a route one move when keeper Joel Torrance’s goal kick was fed on by Louis Robles but the ball didn’t fall kindly for 18-year-old Callum Edwards and the chance was gone.

The hosts nearly doubled their advantage when Mael Davies , back after a 10-week absence through injury, latched on to Kane Owen’s cross but his stooping header was parried to safety by Torrance before Nathan Peate met Lassana Mendes corner but his powerful header drifted wide.

It was a decent chance but the visitors did manage to draw level on 51 minutes, Malkin with a close range finish after a prolonged attack by Bala.

Ben Woollam nearly gave them the lead with a fierce drive from distance which was palmed over the bar by home shotstopper Adam Przybek.

But Bont regained the initiative on the hour when Owen Pritchard picked up the ball from a short corner and fired an unerring finish into the far corner.

Malkin thought he had equalised for the Lakesiders when he met Mendes’ deep cross with a glancing header past Przybek but the flag went up for offside.

But he found the back of the net again with a clever finish from near the penalty spot which wrong-footed the keeper after a Bala break down the right.