The New Saints head to Connah's Quay Nomads looking to close gap at top

Saints moved to within seven points of Penybont, with three games in hand, after Sunday’s 4-2 victory at Aberystwyth Town.

Craig Harrison’s side are now just two points behind second-placed Haverfordwest, having also played three games fewer, after winning their last three league matches, scoring 12 goals in the process.

Connah’s Quay, who appointed former Leeds United, Port Vale and Swindon Town striker Billy Paynter as head coach earlier this season, are currently ninth in the table.

Looking ahead to tonight’s match, long-serving TNS winger Adrian Cieslewicz expects “another tough game”.

Reflecting on Saints’ latest win at Aberystwyth, which lifted the Park Hall club up to third in the table, Cieslewicz added: “I think we made it a bit hard for ourselves. The chances we’ve had we should have probably buried the game a bit earlier.

“Then, obviously, we gift them a goal at 3-2, which gives them a little bit of a boost, doesn’t it, but, yes, in the end I think we deserved the win, and happy to get the three points and move on to the next one.”

Head coach Harrison made nine changes to his TNS side last weekend, with the game coming so soon after last Thursday’s historic opening league phase win over Astana in the Uefa Conference League.

Cieslewicz was one of the players to come into the starting XI and he was also pleased be given the honour of captaining TNS. “I’ve been here for a long, long time and, yes, every time I get the armband I try and lead by example,” he said. “Hopefully I’ve done that and put a decent performance on, but at the end of the day the main thing’s three points and that’s what we got in the end, so happy days.”