BARRY Town Utd Ladies went into their fifth Welsh Women’s League fixture on the back of a perfect start with four straight wins before taking on newly promoted Splott Albion at Jenner Park.

The hosts made one change to their starting line-up following a 2-0 cup win the previous weekend with Chloe Clarke coming into the defence for Holly Vowles.

Barry started the game in confident mood and were putting the early pressure on the visitors goal with Chelsea Deacon and Sian Rees firing just wide from long range in the opening minutes.

The home side were content with maintaining possession and looking to exploit any space between the midfielder and defence units of the visitors who were dogged throughout the contest. Barry were creating some excellent phases of play without finding the killer touch in the final third.

The breakthrough did eventually come on the half hour mark and it was a wonderful striker from all of 35 yards from Charlotte Preen who hit a first time shot into the top corner to register her fourth goal of the season.

It was no more than Barry deserved and it would be the only goal during the first period.

The second half did see a similar pattern with the home side having the majority of possession although Splott did cause the Barry defence several problems. A shot narrowly went wide in the opening stages of the second half and Barry missed a good chance to double their lead.

As the match wore on Barry made a number of changes with Daisy Evan-Watkins replacing Emma Cannot, Alicia Cox replacing Laura Saliba and Taylor Page replaced Olivia Townsend.

It was Evan-Watkins who was to make the decisive breakthrough when some good combination play found the striker and she calmly slotted the ball home after 71 minutes to also register her fourth goal of the season.

To their credit, Splott didn’t lie down and got themselves back in the game with 8 minutes to go with a good left foot finish from just inside the area to set up a grandstand finish.

Barry goalkeeper, Erin Brennan had generally a quiet afternoon but she had to be on hand to make an excellent save at the feet of the on rushing striker in the last minute of normal time and that following a clearance off the Barry line by substitute Taylor Page.

At the other end Barry missed a gilt edged chance to put the game beyond doubt when Rees raced through on goal but her shot went straight into the hands of the Splott goalkeeper.

The final whistle blew and Barry will be delighted to have taken another three points following a real battle and they will now to their attention to the South Wales FA Cup where they travel to face Newport club, Villa Dino next Sunday.

After the game, manager Luke Williams commented: “We are pleased to get another win on the board and overall the performance was of a good standard today.

"We made things hard for ourselves at times later on in the second half but I was really pleased the way we moved the ball today and our patience in possession to wait for the right moments to play through.

"We could have been more clinical in front of goal but also credit to Splott for coming out in the second half and causing us some problems.”