CONWY Borough’s pre-season preparations ahead of the new JD Cymru North season continued with a 6-2 friendly loss to Lancaster City at Y Morfa.

The Tangerines took an early lead before eventually falling to a strong City outfit in difficult weather conditions, and Russ Williams’ men will now turn their attention to a second-tier league opener at Porthmadog this Saturday (2.30pm).

The home side made a hugely impressive start to proceedings and went ahead with just a minute on the clock when Corrig McGonigle displayed his trademark composure in front of goal to give Borough the lead with their first meaningful attack.

This was met by a fierce response from the visitors, who finally broke through the resolute home rear-guard midway through the half to level through Charlie Bailey, and they went ahead for the first time soon after when Sam Bailey finished well after a period of good possession.

Things went from bad-to-worse for Borough on 38 minutes when a trialist player doubled the visitors’ advantage, and Niall Cowperthwaite’s impressive effort added a fourth shortly after the break.

The away side were now in rampant mood and another trialist popped up with goal number five during another exceptional spell of pressure, and Matthew Blinkhorn converted another chance to round off the scoring from a City perspective.

Williams’ side deserve a tremendous amount of credit for the way they applied themselves throughout the friendly, and they managed to get themselves another consolation late on when Liam Morris netted a penalty after Sean McCaffrey had earlier missed a spot kick for the hosts.