BALA TOWN 1

BANGOR CITY 1

(Bala won 7-6 on penalties)

THE Lakesiders are still up for the cup... but only just!

Bala Town booked a spot in the quarter-finals of the Nathaniel MG Cars League Cup on Tuesday evening after a 7-6 penalty shootout win against JD Cymru North outfit Bangor City.

There was a frantic start to proceedings at a wet Maes Tegid, with clear cut chances few and far between for both outfits during the first half.

Lassana Mendes had Town’s first opportunity on goal as his low drive went wide of the far upright from the edge of the box after five minutes of play.

The tie was quite scrappy at times with no team taking a full hold of the game, with Bangor looking to break quickly, but Jonny Spittle and Anthony Stephens at the back for Town kept them at bay.

Neto’s strike was fired straight at Ashley Morris in the Bala net, before Lee Molyneux won a free kick down the other end on the touchline.

This was taken quickly and found Louis Robles, but the forward fired wide.

Bala were having a good spell of possession, with Henry Jones teeing up Robles, but City keeper Atkinson managed to get to it first.

Bala took advantage of their pressure to claim the lead after half-an-hour.

Molyneux initially fired into the box, but it bounced back into Robles’ path and he lobbed the keeper from six yards with a looping effort.

After an initial offside flag, the decision was overturned and Bala were 1-0 up.

Bangor came back into the game at the end of the half, with Baio blazing over and then Neto saw his chance being collected by Morris.

Bala thought they had started the second half in the best possible fashion when Lassana Mendes fired in with a long range effort, but this was ruled out as Jones was impeding Atkinson’s view while he was offside.

With 59 minutes played, City were back level.

Serafino’s superb strike from the edge of the box flew into the right hand side to make it 1-1.

The visitors had their tails up, with Serafino firing wide and Neto shooting over as they looked to take the lead.

At the other end, Atkinson kept out Nathan Burke’s low daisycutter, prior to Sean Smith driving down the wing and into the area, with the keeper smothering to ball.

With no sign of a winner, the whistle blew for full time and penalties were required.

Chris Venables, Nathan Burke, Lee Molyneux and Evan Horwood netted as the initial shootout finished 4-4.

Jonny Spittle and Louis Mendes then found the target as the scoreline became 6-6.

Ashley Morris then superbly saved Cauterucci’s strike down to his left to put Bala in the box seat.

Defender Andy Burns stepped up and rocketed the ball home on his 50th appearance for the Lakesiders to book an away trip to Prestatyn Town in the quarter-finals.