Bangor Earn Sensational Europa League Win

Late Citizens Double Caps Fine Week for Welsh Football

Bangor City followed in the footsteps of TNS by qualifying for the next round in European competition for the first time since the start of the Welsh Premier League, capping a fine week for Welsh football.

After an excellent 1-1 draw in Finland last week, City were really up against it from the first minute at the Racecourse on Thursday as Honka bombarded Paul Smith's goal in the opening ten minutes in order to cancel out Chris Jones' away goal last week. They had already hit the post when Sampo Koskinen struck an unstoppable effort from outside the box into the top right corner of Smith's goal.

This was a blow to City's hopes, but a second would have been an absolute killer for Nev's Powell side. It didn't materialise in the first half and the longer that they kept the Finns out, the more likely it seemed that Bangor would sneak one to take it to extra-time. They had great chances through Les Davies, but his diving header was saved by the visitors 'keeper and captain Tuomas Peltonen. Nicky Ward's touh in front of goal drifted agonisingly wide from a Chris Jones cross and it seemed as though City would be left to rue those two chances.

But, as the outstanding Jones kept rallying against the tiring Finns, the Welsh side finally made the breakthrough and just as he did to win the Welsh Cup Final in May, Dave Morley headed in at the far post to send the vocal Bangor crowd into a state of frenzy. Suddenly, the teams were heading for Extra-Time, but although Nev Powell wanted to slow things down for extra-time, his side wanted to win it in 90 minutes. And that they did.

In a melee in the Honka box, they was a good save from Tuomas Peltonen but quite aptly, the ball fell for the Man of the Match Jones, he he calmly finished to make it 2-1 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate. The Citizens stayed strong for the last three minutes, marshalled by the outstanding Jamie Brewerton and Michael Johnstone and the Armenian referee Arman Amirkhanyan sounded the most welcome final whistle to spark incredible celebrations both on and off the pitch.

Bangor City: Smith, Hoy, Roberts, Morley, Brewerton, Johnston, Jebb (Bull 61), Davies, Ward, Edwards, Jones.

Subs Not Used: Mulliner, Hurdman, Limbert, Clive Williams, Owen.

Goals: Morley 84, Jones 90.

FC Honka: Peltonen, Koskinen, Heilala, Vuorinen, Paatelainen (Vasara 70), Puustinen, Koskimaa, Savage, Otaru, Lepola, Schuller.

Subs Not Used: Henriksson, Aalto, Vayrynen, Heikkila, Rasimus.

Goals: Koskinen 21.