BALA were unfortunate not to take anything from the game when they took on The New Saints at Maes Tegid on Friday night.
Bala Town 0 The New Saints 0, JD Cymru Premier
The Lakesiders caused the champions plenty of problems and, with a bit of luck, could have taken the three points with TNS’ Connor Roberts the busier of the two keepers.
Bala boss Colin Caton said: “I thought we were absolutely outstanding. We’ve played two games since last year whereas they’ve played the Scottish Cup, the league cup; they haven’t stopped playing.
“It’s hard for us being a part-time team but take nothing away from my players tonight, they were absolutely outstanding and should have won the game.”
He added: “We worked on things, we pinpointed places where could get a bit of joy and we had great joy in the first half.
“Naim (Asran) goes through on something we’ve worked on and puts it on top of the net instead of in the net when he’s got plenty of time to finish it.
“Then he hits the post and then the goal that’s disallowed at the end.
“The linesman’s said it’s offside so we’ll have to see what happens with that because there was a bad decision here last Saturday which I think the ref’s been reprimanded for.
“So it will be interesting to see if he is offside on that but if the line is right then congratulations to him (the linesman), he’s done really well.
“But I can’t fault the lads, we were absolutely outstanding and when you take into account these are going to be world record breakers, my lads were outstanding and they’ve broke some great records against TNS today because they’ve got away with one.”
The hosts made a bright start with Aeron Edwards whipping a ball to the front post where George Newell was lurking, but his header was blocked out for a corner.
Town continued to press and forced a succession of four corners, as the Saints were forced on the back foot with increasing pressure applied on keeper Roberts.
They went close again on 11 minutes when Paulo Mendes looked to have given Bala the lead when his close range header from a crowd of players beat Roberts, but the officials deemed the ball had not crossed the line.
Another big chance fell to Bala on 17 minutes when Arsan was given time and space to hit a volley from a couple of yards out, but the ball struck the post.
At the other end the visitors were denied a goal by Ross White’s goal line clearance.
Asran fired a free kick into the wall from a promising position on the edge of the area after a foul on George Newell in the 37th minute before the Saints’ Brad Young attempted a curler from just inside the box that flew inches wide.
But he wasn’t to denied for long as he gave the visitors the lead from close range on the stroke of half time.
He threatened again early in the second half with a strike that seemed destined for the bottom corner but home keeper Kelland Absalom did well to keep it out.
Back came Bala with Roberts performing heroics to palm Newell’ header from a Asran free kick onto the post.
They were causing TNS real concerns at the back and were unfortunate when White’s header back across the face of goal following another Asran set piece evaded everyone with Roberts able to collect.
The visitors fashioned some good chances in the closing stages with Young firing just wide, Absalom forced into a fantastic save to deny Rory Holden and Josh Solomon-Davies throwing his body in front a shot from Declan McManus.
The result was still up in the air though and Bala thought they had secured a point when sub Joe Malkin headed past the keeper from the edge of the area and into the net, but the linesman’s flag was raised.