Blow to Europe hopes

Newtown’s dreams of another European adventure hit the rocks at Bala on Friday as the Robins went down 1-0 to their closest rivals.

And the man that did the damage was Chris Venables who netted a spectacular overhead kick on 61 minutes to see the Maes Tegid side leapfrog Newtown into second place in the JD Cymru Premier League.

The Robins thought they had snatched a dramatic added time equaliser only to see their celebrations cut short by a linesman’s offside flag but they owed a big debt to goalkeeper Dave Jones for keeing them in the game with several outstanding saves.