Bala Town 2 Buckley Town 3

Novira Cymru North

BALA Town suffered a frustrating 3-2 home defeat to Buckley Town on Friday night as defensive mistakes proved costly.

Looking to bounce back after conceding a late equaliser against Caersws the previous weekend, Bala started brightly and spent much of the opening stages on the front foot

Despite the pressure, it was Buckley who carved out the game's first clear chance, only for Ross White to clear a goal-bound header off the line.

The visitors took the lead with their second effort on goal when a mistimed challenge inside the box resulted in a penalty, which was converted by Ben Guest via the post.

Bala responded well and Ozzy Abadaki went close, but Buckley doubled their advantage soon afterwards when a dangerous cross from the right was inadvertently turned into his own net by Abadak.

Will Bell almost reduced the deficit before the break, but Buckley went into half-time holding a commanding 2-0 lead.

Bala emerged with renewed purpose after the interval and came close through Okera Simmonds, whose effort drifted narrowly wide. Their pressure finally paid off on 62 minutes when Ross White headed home to halve the deficit.

Just two minutes later the hosts were level, with Simmonds forcing the ball over the line to complete the comeback. With momentum firmly in Bala's favour, it looked as though only one side would go on to win.

Instead, another defensive error handed Buckley a second penalty, and Connor Littler made no mistake from the spot to restore their lead with 16 minutes remaining.

Despite making a series of substitutions, Bala were unable to create a clear route back into the contest as Buckley held firm to secure all three points.

Bala boss Steve Fisher said: “We’ve had a few harsh words over the last couple of weeks because defensively we haven’t been good enough.

“We’re OK going forward, we’re scoring goals but we’re killing ourselves. The disappointing thing to me is we’re dominating most of these games like today I thought we were miles the better team.

“But they’ve hit us on the break, we’ve given two penalties away and scored an own goal.

“No one opens us up in open play and we domiate the possession, keep the ball and get in behind but if you’re going to concede two or three goals every game, you can’t need to win games by scoring three or four every week.

“The lads in there are better than that, they’ve all played Welsh Prem football, they’ve all played at a higher level than this and kept clean sheets against the best of teams.”

Attention now turns to next Saturday's crucial Welsh Cup tie at Maes Tegid against Holyhead Hotspur.