TNS 3 Connah's Quay Nomads 1

TNS made further inroads to the restoration of their JD Cymru Premier crown with victory over reigning champions Connah's Quay Nomads at Park Hall tonight.

Two goals from league top scorer Declan McManus sandwiched a fine strike from Ben Clark as the Oswestry side and runaway leaders made light work of the challenge of ex-TNS manager Craig Harrison's Connah's Quay Nomads.

The Deeside visitors probed early on with Jamie Insall and Ryan Harrington linking for Craig Curran to warm the palms of home stopper Paul Harrison.

However the home side led with their first chance of the evening on 12 minutes with Ryan Brobbel skilfully breaking down the left wing before crossing for Declan McManus to bundle past goalkeeper Oliver Byrne at the second attempt.

TNS built on their breakthrough with the early momentum with and grabbed their second on 26 minutes with Danny Redmond's left wing cross falling for the unmarked Ben Clark who curled an unstoppable shot beyond the reach of Byrne.

Five minutes later Byrne was called into action to deny Brobbel from the edge of the area as TNS continued to dominate with Jordan Williams also seeing an effort ruled out for an earlier infringement.

Nomads were limited to few openings at the other end with Paulo Mendes lashing into the side-netting in a rare opportunity for the Deesiders.

TNS ended the half on top with Williams denied by the referee's whistle for the second time on the stroke of the interval with December's league player of the month ruled offside.

Nomads were back in the game within two minutes of the restart with Curran going down in the area with referee Lee Evans pointing to the spot as John Disney sent Harrison the wrong way from the resulting penalty.

However just a minute later McManus was clumsily challenged by Danny Holmes with Evans once again pointing to the spot as McManus completed his brace.

Nomads enjoyed their best spell of the game with Connor Simpson and Aeron Edwards firing over before Mendes steered a headed effort wide from Kris Owens' 67th minute right wing free-kick.

TNS looked to kill the game off with a powerful drive from Brobbel calling upon Byrne to make an intervention with a quarter of an hour remaining.

TNS enjoyed sustained periods of possession though the Nomads weathered the pressure and ended the game strongly but the damage had already been inflicted as their grip on the JD Cymru Premier silverware was further loosened.

TNS: Harrison, Astles, Routledge, Brobbel (Smith 87), McManus, Redmond, Hudson, Denny, Williams (Robles 74), Clark (Cieslewicz 63), Davies. Subs: Roberts, Baker, Canavan, Daykin.

Nomads: Byrne, Disney, Harrington, Horan, Mullan, Insall (A Williams 84), Holmes, Owens, Curran (Simpson 54), Edwards. Subs: Price-Griffiths, Webster, Morris, Owen, J Williams.