The New Saints playing catch-up at early-season pace-setters

Penybont lead the table after collecting 17 points from their opening seven games, with a record of five wins and two draws.

Saints continue to play catch up with their league fixtures owing to their ongoing European campaign.

The Park Hall side are currently five points behind Penybont with three games in hand.

Saints have a 100 per cent league record so far with four wins from as many games, the latest a 4-0 success over Barry Town United last weekend, which was the club’s 30th league victory in a row. Now an opportunity presents itself for Craig Harrison’s consistent side to try and narrow the gap between themselves and the table-toppers.

Looking ahead to tonight’s match, long-serving TNS winger Adrian Cieslewicz said: “The games come very quick, don’t they, so yes, I think like the gaffer said before, every three days.

“Penybont’s a tough place to go to, always a hard place to go to.”

Cieslewicz was the match-winner for Saints on Tuesday night as they booked a place in the quarter-finals of the Nathaniel MG Cup with a 1-0 victory at Airbus UK Broughton.

“I think we made hard work out of it to be honest,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, give them a bit of credit as well, they came and pressed us from the front and made it a bit difficult for us.

“But we definitely had enough chances to sort of kill the game a bit quicker than it was.

“But sometimes you have to grind results out and we seem to make hard work in the cup games, don’t we, either penalties or win by one goal, so, yes, another victory and we just move on to the next one.”

The New Saints under-19s lost narrowly 3-2 to FK Zalgiris in the first leg of the UEFA Youth League in Lithuania on Wednesday night.

Caleb Afful scored both goals for the Saints in the club’s debut appearance in the prestigious competition at the LFF Stadium in Vilnius.

But a hat-trick from Zalgiris captain Romualdas Jansonas sealed victory for the hosts as they overturned a 2-1 half-time deficit.

The return leg will take place at Park Hall on Tuesday, October 1, with a tie against Manchester United awaiting the winners in the next round.