Jordan Williams marked his 100th league appearance for The New Saints in perfect fashion — with a hat-trick in a ruthless 6–2 win over Penybont.

It may have taken eight games to do so, but reigning champions The New Saints found themselves back in familiar territory at the summit of the Cymru Premier at the weekend.

The New Saints are back in their favourite position – on top, as Rob Cole reports.

The New Saints are still the dominant force in Welsh domestic football after winning the JD Welsh Cup to add to their Cymru Premier title and Welsh League Cup triumphs.

It’s the first final of the Welsh domestic football season and there are no prizes for guessing who will be favourites to lift the trophy.

The New Saints boss Craig Harrison told his players to be proud of their performance despite suffering defeat to Panathinaikos to leave their hopes of reaching the next round of the Conference League hanging by a thread. Filip Duricic put the Greek giants ahead in the 15th minute, beating the outstanding Connor Roberts at the second attempt, before Fotis Ioannidis sent the TNS goalkeeper the wrong way from the penalty spot just after the hour to settle it in a 2-0 win.

The New Saints face a week of cup action in two different competitions as they continue to manage an unprecedented workload in pursuit of more titles. Their season kicked off on 15 June with a run of seven friendlies before they embarked on a record-breaking European run that will see them play their 12th game against Panathinaikos at Shrewsbury’s New Meadow ground on Thursday night.

Craig Harrison insists The New Saints remain capable of making the Conference League knockout phase despite suffering a third group defeat. The Welsh champions lost 1-0 to Djurgarden at their temporary Shrewsbury base as their streetwise Swedish opponents called on all their European experience to prevail.

Craig Harrison asked for a reaction from his players following their shock 3-1 defeat to Briton Ferry Llansawel earlier in the week and he got it in spades as The New Saints moved to within a point of the top of the JD Cymru Premier table. They were forced to do it the hard way after falling behind to two goals in as many minutes from former Cardiff City academy star James Crole that gave league leaders Penybont a handy half-time lead at Park Hall.

Craig Harrison has urged his New Saints side not to get too down-hearted after they suffered a 2-1 defeat at Shamrock Rovers in their latest Europa Conference League tie. TNS had led 1-0 but the Irish side came from behind to beat the Cymru Premier champions at Tallaght Stadium.

Craig Harrison is dreaming The New Saints making the knockout stages of a European tournament after they became the first Welsh Premier side to gather points at the group stage of a major European competition. TNS beat Astana from Kazakhstan, 2-0 at The New Meadow, Shrewsbury Town’s ground, to write themselves into the history books.

With 21 goals in their last two games The New Saints will go into their historic first home game against FC Astana in the Group stages of the UEFA Conference League on Thursday full of attacking intent. But it was a similar situation before they faced Serie A giants Fiorentina in their first game at the start of the month, when they headed to Italy on the back of a 6-1 win at Newtown.