| Bala Town's start is best-ever |
| Tuesday 29 September 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
by Dave Jones, Daily Post BALA Town have made the best-ever start to a season by a club newly-promoted to the Welsh Premier League - and that's official.Based on results over the first six games for the 20 new clubs elevated to the Welsh Premier since 1993-94, the Maes Tegid outfit top the chart. Colin Caton's side have picked up 13 points from their opening six matches and that betters the previous highest total of 11 achieved by fresh recruits Ton Pentre back in 1993-94. Having won the Cymru Alliance League by just three points last season after a couple of previous near misses, many were expecting Bala to find the going tough at a higher level. But astute boss Caton (pictured) brought in a whole host of experienced players in the close season, combining them with the best of the Cymru Alliance title-winning squad and some promising youngsters.
After a dream start with a 2-1 home win over Welsh Cup holders Bangor City in front of almost 1,000 at Maes Tegid, Town have gone on to beat Newtown (1-0), Caersws (2-0) and Elements Cefn Druids (1-0), as well as drawing 0-0 with Porthmadog. Manager Caton admits even he has been surprised his team's outstanding start. "I never thought we'd take 13 points from our first six games - I expected maybe half that many," he said. "It's been absolutely fantastic; it's a massive step up for us and we've done extremely well but there's a long way to go. I knew from the start we were in for a grueling, hard season and nothing's changed." While the likes of Ricky Evans, now at his ninth Welsh Premier club, have been taking the headlines, Caton stressed what has been achieved is very much down to teamwork. "Ricky and Mark Powell have added a lot of experience, but there's a lot of youth in the team as well. I pick my lads carefully, whoever signs for Bala has to add something to the squad. Everyone's done well, our results have been down to workrate as much as ability. "The Welsh Premier is all new to me, a trip into the dark although I have watched lots of games from the league over the years. From my experience in the Cymru Alliance I'd seen a lot of teams who had gone up, such as Prestatyn Town and Llangefni, had not strengthened and they struggled -we're determined to ensure that doesn't happen to us." This season there is the added pressure on all Welsh Premier clubs of qualifying for next season's Super 12. At the end of the campaign up to eight clubs could be relegated. "Everyone wants to get into the Super 12, we'll try our very best to get into it, but if we don't the club will keep going and won't take a backward step," vowed Caton. “The club has grown massively over the past six seasons - we've won nine trophies in that time which is absolutely fantastic." While some promoted clubs have suffered from apathy, both with attendances and support from their communities, it has certainly not been the case for Bala with Friday night crowds at Maes Tegid averaging 632. "Friday nights have been a massive pull for us, but the town hasn't just been buzzing this season, it's been buzzing for the past six years," added Caton. |
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