We will look to continue our pre-season preparations with another friendly victory against Athletic Newham Friday evening. This will be our last friendly before we face Sligo Rovers in the first leg of our 1st Qualifying Round Europa Conference League tie.
The Match
Bala Town vs Athletic Newham
Pre-season friendly
Maes Tegid, LL23 7UY
Friday, July 1st, 7:30 pm kick-off.
Summer Signings
Since our last friendly fixture against Cliftonville, two new players became Lakesiders. Naim Arsan and Luke Wall both featured in that game and made strong first impressions on spectators at Maes Tegid.
Arsan joins us from Newtown and comes in to strengthen our defence while also having attacking flair to his game. He has experience playing in Europe from playing with both Newtown and Cefn Druids
As for Wall, he also has experience of playing both in the Welsh Premier League and Europe during his time at Bangor City. While representing The Citizens, he had a standout season, winning the WPL's Young Player of the Year award.
Insight into our opponents
Athletic Newham were founded in 2015 as a youth team before moving into adult football a year later. They are based in London, England and play their football at the Terence McMillan Stadium in Plaistow.
The Kings' manager is Christopher Davis who guided them to the club's best FA Vase performance in their history in the 2021/22 season as they reached the fifth round.
Danger Man
Richard Kone - Atheltic Newham's danger man comes in the way of Richard Kone. The striker took home a handful of individual awards following the club's latest campaign. He won Essex Senior Player Of The Year and Top Scorer for the league while securing a trophy for the Essex Senior Top Scorers list and to top it off the Don Douglas award.
Last summer, Kone underwent a trial with Colchester United hoping to impress and secure a professional contract with the club. However, he opted instead to go on trial with another interested unnamed club in the Premier League.
Once he returned to Athletic Newham, Kone continued the frightening form that saw him grasp the attention of many teams. He managed 17 goals in 10 games to start off a brilliant individual start to the season which would go on to see him finish top goalscorer in the Essex Senior League.