Caernarfon Town FC V Bala Town
Friday 21 March, 19:45
Cofis Overpower Lakesiders.
Caernarfon 5 – 0 Bala.
It was a rare Friday evening fixture under the Carling Oval night for the Cofis last night, and their Bala Town were their opponents.
Having experienced a barren run against the Lakesiders in recent seasons, Richard Davies’ team have had the edge this term, having played Colin Caton’s charges on three occasions, drawing once and convincingly winning the last two matches.
With just Josh Locke out of contention the Caernarfon squad looked strong although it has to be said that they were the slower out of the blocks of the two sides.
The visitors began impressively and enjoyed a good opening fifteen minutes. They could well have gone into an early lead with just two minutes on the clock after Callum Edwards raced into open space on the right but his low effort went wide of the post.
The hosts’ first effort on goal came in the twelfth minute after good work by Paulo Mendes in midfield as he found Adam Davies with a pinpoint delivery to the edge of the box. The tall striker cut inside his marker and in the box before seeing his effort deflected and then saved by stopper Joel Torrance.
This seemed to trigger Caernarfon and they moved up a gear, firstly getting parity of the ball and then dominating play, especially in midfield where Mendes was dictating much of what was going on.
However, the hosts could thank goalkeeper Ben Hughes for keeping them on level terms in the twenty fifth minute when they failed to deal with a corner to the back post and Nathan Peate headed goalwards, with Hughes getting down smartly to keep his net empty.
A Davies volley on the half hour mark sailed over the bar but the deadlock was finally broken three minutes later.
The breakthrough came from an unexpected source when Bala failed to deal with a corner and following a scramble in the area, the ball fell to Sam Downey, who smashed into the roof of the net for his first goal for Caernarfon.
The score remained unchanged for the remainder of the opening half with very little goalmouth action but, much to the delight of the Cofi Army, the second half was very much a different tale.
Caernarfon’s lead doubled five minutes after the restart when Louis Lloyd controlled a Mendes cross eight yards out and the ball ballooned up, before bouncing off Keiran Lloyd, over Torrance and into the net.
The Lakesiders seemed to deflate immediately and the Cofis took advantage, scoring three more goals before the ninety minutes were over.
The third goal came in the fifty seventh minute and it was Downey who again did the business, picking the ball up thirty yards out and driving on before firing a powerful low effort that was too hot for Torrance.
Town’s top scorer, Lloyd, took over goalscoring duties for the remainder of the match. The fourth goal arrived six minutes later after an excellent delivery from Matty Jones caught the Bala defence square and Lloyd ran into the box before finding the far corner of Torrance’s net.
The fifth, and final goal was a virtual copy of the fourth. This time, it was Adam Davies who found the onrushing Lloyd on the right wing and this time, he decided to draw the goalkeeper off his line and dinked the ball over him. An exquisite assist and finish to cap off a dominating second half performance from Caernarfon that sees them sit fourth in the Cymru Premier League with three matches to play.
It was also the perfect result to celebrate the four hundredth appearance of captain Darren Thomas for the Cofis.
Tyn Lon Volvo Garage Man of the Match: Paulo Mendes.
Team: Ben Hughes, Morgan Owen, Matty Jones, Phil Mooney, Ryan Sears, Sam Downey, Paulo Mendes, Louis Lloyd, Adam Davies, Jake Canavan, Joe Faux. Subs (used): Daniel Gosset, Matty Hill, Darren Thomas, Gruff John, Osian Ellis. Not used: Hari Thomas, Blaine Hudson.