League leaders set bar for promotion

THE challenges come thick and fast for Colwyn Bay who, after Tuesday’s 3-0 home defeat to fellow top three hopefuls Holywell Town, now face league leaders and title favourites Airbus UK at the 4 Crosses Arena on Saturday (2.30pm kick-off).

It is a chance to bounce back with a big performance against a side who have set the benchmark for prospective promotion challengers.

Bay manager Steve Evans will be thinking hard about his starting line-up after Tuesday. He says his side will need to regroup, and he will be looking for them to start the game strongly after admitting his side were nowhere near where they need to be in the first half against Holywell.

Airbus will be another good pointer to how much work needs to be done to get the team in shape for a promotion push next season.

The Broughton side, who are 15 points ahead of the Seagulls, have lost only one of their last 16 league games, are the division’s top scorers by some distance and in Adam Davies have a striker who has already hit 29 goals.

That is the sort of consistency that is needed to win a very competitive Cymru North.

Airbus, who beat Colwyn Bay 4-1 on their home ground in September, have a number of Bay connections. Player-coach Jamie Crowther made over 60 appearances for the Bay during the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons, while Nathan Brown had a couple of spells with the Seagulls on loan from Chester and Beau Cornish played a couple of promising games at the end of the curtailed 2019/20 season before signing pro forms with TNS.

Llandudno, who are currently the only real challengers to Airbus for the title, will be hoping the Bay can do them a favour as they travel to Llanidloes on Saturday.

In the race for a top three finish Guilsfield travel to Penrhyncoch, Ruthin are away to Llanrhaeadr, while Holywell are without a game.

Bay manager Steve Evans will be taking part in a Question and answer session in the club lounge after Saturday’s game (5.15pm)