The New Saints coach Anthony Limbrick is wary of ‘dangerous’ Bala

Saints, nine points clear at the top of the table, face fifth-placed Bala under the Maes Tegid lights this evening (7.45pm).

It will be a first return to action for Saints since beating third-placed Newtown 2-0 at Park Hall on November 19.

That was an 11th victory in 14 league games for Limbrick’s in-form side this season as they continue to impressively set the pace at the top of the table.

Saints were 2-1 winners when they last met Bala at Park Hall last month. Bala led 1-0 with less than 10 minutes remaining before Ryan Brobbel equalised. Then Brobbel struck again in stoppage time to earn Saints maximum points.

Limbrick said: “What I would say is when we played Bala at home here we won 2-1 and we didn’t deserve to win that game. I thought they were outstanding that day.

“They went in 1-0 at half-time, a penalty, which was probably a debatable penalty, but they definitely deserved to go in leading and could have led by more.

“At 1-0 in the second half they had another chance and could have won 2-0 easily, and I thought they were well worth their value that day. In the first half we were certainly second best. We changed a few things tactically second half and we managed to score two late goals and get the win, which was great for us.

“However, I don’t really look at the points there, because that was probably the game where we’ve been under the most pressure out of any team that we’ve played against and the ones who have played the best against us.

“We’ve got a lot of respect for Bala. We know their strengths and areas that we want to try and exploit.

“But we know on their day they can be as good as anyone, so regardless of where the points are, I think it’s a very, very dangerous game for us and one that we want to go there and win, of course, but they’re certainly going to be dangerous opponents.”