Bangor City earn landmark draw

Europa League: FC HONKA 1-1 BANGOR CITY

Bangor City earned a landmark draw in Finland as the Welsh side secured their first positive European away result for 25 years as they held FC Honka 1-1.

A Demba Savage header had given the Finnish full-timers the lead before half-time in their Europa Cup second qualifying round first leg clash. Bangor keeper Paul Smith saved a Markus Paatelainen penalty before Bangor new boy Chris Jones hit a debut leveller. The part-timers held on to claim a draw with a valuable away goal. Former Wales under-19 international Jones - a summer signing from Porthmadog - held off the attentions off the Honka defence to run onto Les Davies's through-pass and slide the ball home from 12 yards.

The Welsh Cup winners' 1-1 draw at Honka's Tapiolan Urheilupuisto stadium is the first time in 10 attempts that Bangor have not been beaten away from home in Europe, and holding the team lying second in Finland's top division is a great boost to the Welsh Premier as it is just the ninth time in 75 European away trips that a Welsh Premier team has not been beaten since the league's inception.

FC HONKA. What a name

Bangor actually came close to beating Napoli in the European Cup Winners Cup in 1961/2

They won 2-0 at Farar Road but lost 3-1 in Italy

Under the current rules of course they would have gone through under the away goals count double rule, but as this rule did not exist in those days there was a replay at Highbury where they lost 2-1 to a goal 7 minutes from time.