TNS ready to seal title deal on home soil

Tuesday night’s 2-1 victory over second-placed Bala Town, secured by a late winner from Chris Marriott, moved Saints to the brink of becoming champions.

It took them 26 points clear at the top of the table with Saints, who have eight league games still to play, now having the opportunity to make mathematically certain of the title tomorrow.

While a point will be enough, head coach Anthony Limbrick and his players will be aiming for another win to maintain their excellent home record at Park Hall.

Penybont, who have played a game less than Saints, are third in the table, with 27 points between the teams.

Limbrick said: “Our home form has been excellent this season. We’ve won every single game at home this season, including in Europe as well – and that’s what we’ll be aiming for, whether it’s a point that we need, or whatever the points are, we’ll be looking to win that game.

“We want to carry on that home form, not just for this game, but for the games coming till the end of the season to show how much we’ve improved as a group, so we’re determined to win this game and put on a show like we have done in every game.

“But one thing I would say is Penybont are a very tough opponent. We had probably what, I think, was an entertaining game for the neutral here, 3-2, maybe not for us so far, but we narrowly came out winners in that game.

“They drew with us at their place, and normally it’s by an odd goal that we’ve got in front of them, or drawn with them, so it will be really tight and tough.

“They’re a very tactical team, they change shape and do different things each time they come and play us, so we’re expecting a really tough challenge and they certainly will want to come and cause an upset here on Saturday.”

Saints, who have been runners-up in the JD Cymru Premier for the last two seasons, have won 20 of their 24 league games this season, losing just once.

Limbrick added: “We’ve said it from the start, and it’s been my line if you watch the interviews regularly, then you’d know that it’s not about the table for us, it’s about improvement from last season.

“It’s of course about improving the position that we finish, which was second last season to first this season.

“We don’t talk a lot about the table here at all. We talk about the performances, how we can get better, how we can improve, how we can raise the standards, and I think the big test will be is if we could get over the line on the weekend, how we react to that afterwards, what we do after that.

“We’ve got the saying that we want to finish strong and finish strong in the season means that we want to go and get the win on Saturday.

“We know how tough and difficult it’s going to be. We’ve got great respect for Penybont, but we want to win here again at home, and that would put us in the position we want to be.”