CAERNARFON Town began their busy festive fixture list with a 2-1 loss at Barry Town United.

The Canaries suffered a blow to their hopes of a top six finish at the JD Welsh Premier League split, but they are just one point behind Aberystwyth Town ahead of their home tie against Llandudno and former manager Iwan Williams on Boxing Day (2.30pm).

The home side started the game on the front foot and almost went ahead early on when Jonathan Hood was presented with a chance, but his effort was superbly diverted by Cofis’ stopper Alex Ramsay.

Their strong start finally paid dividends on ten minutes when Kayne McLaggon turned in a deliver from Macauley Southam-Hales after some neat play in the build-up by Troy Greening.

As has been the case for the entirety of the campaign, the visitors responded well to the setback and levelled proceedings when Mike Lewis failed to collect an in-swinging free-kick and ended up parrying the ball into his own net.

Things almost got even better for the away side when Danny Brookwell fluffed his lines and fired over from just inside the area, with full-back Joe Williams producing a superb goal-libe clearance to keep the scores level at the other end.

The chances kept coming for Sean Eardley’s side with Jamie Breese firing narrowly wide, and the striker also saw a goalbound effort hacked off the line by Robbie Patten after a Sion Bradley effort was parried by Lewis.

They were made to pay for their lack of conviction in front of goal after 58 minutes when Newport County loanee Momodou Touray latched on to a deflected pass from McLaggon before striking past Ramsay.

The away side almost rescued a share of the spoils in injury time when Ryan Edwards steered an effort towards Lewis’ goal, but the attempt was blocked superbly by Lewis Cosslett.