Bala Town 3 Holyhead Hotspur 4

FAW Welsh Cup

IT was a return to Welsh Cup action for the Lakesiders on Saturday and there was anticipation of a good cup run to produce some confidence in a team suffering from a poor run of form.

This anticipation was given more impetus when Bala took the lead after only eight minutes with a Tom Kelly shot from short range.

It was however downhill again from this moment and the home side gifted Holyhead an equaliser on 16 minutes from a Jamie Jones shot which squeezed in at the near post.

It was all square at the break and Bala hoped for an improvement in the second half.

This hope was very quickly dashed when the visitors, who have only two wins in 10 Cymru North outings to date, took the lead after only three minutes of the half through Connor Owen and the game was taken away from the home side when two more goals were added by the Harbourmen on 61 and 63 minutes through Codie Holland and Connor Owen again.

Poor defending and lack of commitment left Bala with a mountain to climb and despite snatching two late goals back through Nathan Burke and John Owen the visitors were jubilant with a deserved win against a disappointing Bala side.

The Lakesiders now face the daunting task of a visit next Saturday to Cae Llan, Llanuwchllyn for a greatly anticipated local derby.

Improvement in every aspect of the game is essential for Bala to get anything out of this visit to their near neighbours.

Llanuwchllyn will also be determined to turn thing around after they were knocked out of the cup after being handed a heavy 7-0 mauling by Newtown at Latham Park on Saturday.