Almost Groundhog Day
When we played Bala Town at Park Hall in October last year, the Lakesiders went into the break 1-0 up, courtesy of a Chris Venables goal.
Then, a late brace from Ryan Brobbel secured a 2-1 victory for The New Saints.
This time round, the half-time scenario was the same and when Brobbel fired home with eighteen minutes to go, the scene was set.
It was Chris Marriott who scored the winner though, in the 89th minute.
Still, 2-1. We’ll settle for that.
Ryan Brobbel
He’s scored some key goals for The New Saints during his time with the club and when Brobbel found the net in the 72nd minute, it was most certainly game on.
He almost broke the deadlock in the first-half, when his free-kick from outside the penalty area beat the wall and the ‘keeper. Unfortunately, the crossbar denied the number eight, as it rattled but held firm.
Chris Marriott
For the second game on the bounce, we interviewed our captain post-match. This time round, in the dying seconds of the ninety minutes, he scored the winner.
As a defender he doesn’t score that many goals – his last one was in October 2019 against Airbus UK Broughton – but the one against Bala Town was an extremely important strike.
Always leading by example, Marriott is an inspiration to the players around him.
Paul Harrison
Talking of inspiration, both last week against Flint Town United and this time round as well, Harrison pulled off some key saves.
At Cae-y-Castell, he produced two superb stops in the first period that kept the score level at the break.
Yesterday, against Bala Town, in the dying seconds he again showed what he’s capable off as he denied the Lakesiders a late equaliser.
Almost There
The three points means that The New Saints now has a twenty-six points lead at the top of the JD Cymru Premier. Only Penybont can catch us now, and that is if they win all their remaining games, we lose ours and they overturn the goal difference.
It’s not likely, but it is mathematically possible so, at this stage, we have to say that we are almost there.
Coincidentally, the next game for both sides is against each other, this Saturday at Park Hall.
See you there!
Lead image courtesy of Phil Blagg.
