CHRISTMAS came early for Andy Morrison as Connah’s Quay Nomads secured a crucial 2-1 victory over rivals Bala Town.

The visiting Lakesiders were dominant during the opening 45 minutes, but only had a goal from former Nomad Jonny Spittle to show for their efforts.

Bala’s failure to put the contest to bed came back to haunt them in the second period as Michael Bakare, thrown on at the interval, struck twice to win it for Nomads.

“I’m delighted with the three points and it’s an early Christmas gift for me, because Bala did everything but put the game to bed,” said Nomads’ boss Morrison.

“When you play like that against us and you don’t kill the game off, we are liable to get back into it because we are relentless, we will not lay down and we keep going.”

Asked whether he’d dished out the hairdryer treatment to his below-par players at the break in order to spark a reaction, Morrison took very little credit for the turnaround.

“I came in at half-time and I say ‘all I can take from it boys is that we are only losing 1-0. You’ve been given a gift because it could be 3-0’,” said the former Manchester City captain.

“There was no tactical genius, no changing of shape that I will take credit for, other than Michael Bakare is the Cymru Premier player of the season because he’s done a lot of the things I’ve asked him to do.

“The goals are a bonus. Goals are a by-product of your team collectively doing so many things right - hard work, endeavour, desire, will, wanting to run, getting to balls first, courage.

“On the back of that you score and win games of football. When those things aren’t happening goals don’t come.

“Sometimes people need to know that there is so much more to the game than the odd flick and a goal here and there - that’s not what my team is about, my teams have always been built on togetherness.”

Everything that could go wrong for Nomads in the first-half did go wrong, but it was back to normality in the second period.

Morrison added: “We were so poor, so un-Connah’s Quay like and then the contrast is that we were so Connah’s Quay like in the second-half.

“We got to second balls after we’d got to the first ball and we won it in the right areas, fed the widemen and put the ball in the box, which caused them all kinds of problems.

“We snatched victory and I can’t camouflage it or sugar-coat it in any way that we had this masterplan that they’d be tired later in the game.

“It’s nonsense, we were just really, really poor.”

Bakare’s brace was vintage Nomads, the former Wrexham man lurking at the back post twice, lashing home the first with his trusty left-boot before rising high to head what proved to be the winner eight minutes later.

Morrison was delighted with his side’s second-half approach as they bounced back from a first defeat of the campaign at the hands of Cefn Druids.

“We have absolutely battered Cefn Druids for 90 minutes,” said Morrison. “In the 46th minute we go 1-0 down and in the 92nd minute they score their second goal.

“Apart from their two goals we’ve dominated the whole game, but we’ve had no cutting edge.

“We came off with our greatest ever possession in a game - 72 per cent - absolutely fantastic.

“But until Uefa start changing things around and start giving goals for 20 passes I will start looking at that a little bit more, but until then I will get the ball in the box, because that’s where you score goals.”

Bala attacker Kieran Smith revealed that he and his team-mates were ‘gutted’ after the visitors let victory slip from their grasp.

“The lads are gutted to be honest,” said Smith at the full-time whistle.

“We played really well in the first-half and probably should have been out of sight, and then we’ve not really turned up in the second-half.

“We’ve been punished, so everyone is gutted.”

That second-half showing from Bala came on the back of an impressive opening 45 minutes in which Colin Caton’s men dominated.

The only thing missing for Bala was a second goal, and Smith knows that the Lakesiders can’t afford to let teams as good as Nomads off the hook if they are to secure all three points.

Smith added: “I don’t think we’ve created that many chances against Connah’s Quay before, so that was a positive, but we’ve got to be ruthless and we’ve got to score more than one goal.”

Next up for Bala is a Boxing Day trip to Caernarfon, who strengthened their grip on a top-six spot with a 1-0 win at Carmarthen.

Cai Jones scored in the dying stages after the Canaries played the last 20 minutes with 10-men after Gareth Edwards was dismissed.