It was honours even in the Gwynedd Derby on Saturday evening, as we concluded the double header with our local rivals, after collecting four out of a maximum six points.
The point earned at The Oval secured the Lakesiders' place in the Champions Conference for the 8th time in the club's proud history.
Deadline Day signing Dean Ebbe was on form once again, netting two first half goals before Will Evans was needed to poke home from close range to rescue a point from the Oval.
Ebbe strikes once again!
It was a great start to the game from the Lakesiders who looked threatening from the off, with the front three of Brad Bauress, Dean Ebbe and Will Evans looking to cause damage to the Cofi defence.
It wasn't long until Dean Ebbe's brilliance showed once again, along with the trickery of Lassana Mendes, who made his way to the byline to set up a cross to Ebbe, who finished wonderfully into the bottom right corner to give the Lakesiders the lead!
Mendes & Ebbe link once more
The home side huffed and puffed throughout the first half to try and claw an equaliser, but were open on the counter attack on many times. Sion Bradley on many occassions was the danger man for the Cofi's, as he sent an effort towards goal from outside the area, however the wind took the direction of the ball away from goal.
With only a minute to go of the first half, the partnership of Lassana Mendes and Dean Ebbe struck again! Mendes managed to get to the byline again, and put in a lovely chipped ball between the keeper and the back post, where the on-rushing Dean Ebbe came to tap the ball home to double his tally and our lead.
Quick response from the hosts
The hosts struck back just after the break, from what looked like a corner that was dealt with, however as the corner was cleared to Joe Faux, he made some space on his right foot and hit a perfect ball into the near post just past the reach of Ramsay to get his side back in the game.
Bradley hits a stunner!
With 20 minutes remaining, the hosts had their tails up having got a goal back, and were rewarded after Sion Bradley cut in from the left hand side, and hit a wonder strike into the far right hand corner with no chance for Ramsay, to give his side the equaliser.
Former Bala man makes us pay, however...
As we reached the last five minutes of the match, it was too close to call with both sides aiming for a winner, however poor defending from Bala gave the ball to Noah Edwards who played a pass behind our backline to Former Lakesider Mike Hayes, who calmly went round Ramsay and slotted into an empty net to give the Cofi's the lead.
With the game almost done, we had to chase an equaliser to try and secure a top six place...In came Will Evans! A downwards header from Dave Edwards inside the box, took a deflection from a Caernarfon defender, into the path of Will Evans who made no mistake and slotted the ball underneath the keeper to claw back a point in the final few minutes!
Before our last game of Phase 1, we will welcome Aberystwyth Town to Maes Tegid for a JD Welsh Cup Quarter Final on Saturday 19th of February, with kick off at 2:30pm, that is before welcoming Aber back to Maes Tegid for the final game of Phase 1 just a week later.
Match Stats:
Caernarfon Town - Jakub Ojrzynski, Iwan Cartwright, Gruff John, Dion Donohue, Sion Bradley, Danny Gosset, Darren Thomas, Noah Edwards, Ryan Williams, Cai Jones, Joe Faux
Bala Town - Alex Ramsay, Oliver Southern, Antony Kay, Nathan Peate, Sean Smith, Lassana Mendes, Kieran Smith, Will Evans, Ollie Shannon, Brad Bauress, Dean Ebbe
Substitutions:
Caernarfon Town - Mike Hayes > Joe Faux (62)
Bala Town - Paul Rutherford > Brad Bauress (65), Dave Edwards > Dean Ebbe (73), Calum Woods > Ollie Southern (87)
