Having made it to half time at 0-0 and generally given a good account of themselves, the last thing that Flint needed was to concede early in the second period and hand the momentum to their opponents. But that’s exactly what happened, and from then on, there only looked like being one winner, as the heavy pitch seemed to take it’s toll on the legs of the visitors, and it was a rearguard action of damage limitation.
For the opening 20 minutes or so, Flint were quite bright and positive, happy to take the game to their hosts, although there was always a worry they might get caught on a break, or lose possession when trying to play it out from the back on a tricky surface, which happened on a couple of occasions.
The first chance presented itself to the Silkmen with just 2 minutes on the clock, when a Jake Phillips long throw was flicked on by a Caernarfon defender into the path of Izaack Lambert, who found himself in a good position in space. But his hurried snapshot flew well wide of the target.
Halfway through the first period, Caernarfon started to assert themselves, and Sidi Fofana was forced into a terrific acrobatic clearance in front of his own goal to prevent them scoring. From the corner, Harry Owen was then called upon to deny Ryan Sears with another clearance.
Flint’s best chance of the game came shortly after, when Eliott Reeves laid the ball off smartly to his strike partner Josh Jones, who faced with just Ben Hughes to beat in the Caernarfon goal, pulled his shot wide of the post.
Josh Lock was now starting to find space in the middle of the park for the home side, and began pulling the stings for them. On 25 minutes he beat Isaac lee to the ball, and ran infield towards goal before trying a curler from 18 yards out, but Jack Flint was equal to it, and saved.
Lock was involved again, ten minutes later, this time on the left, as he instigated a move that resulted in the ball being played back into the path of Louis Lloyd, whose shot from the edge of the area struck the crossbar, and bounced down in front of the goal line, before hurriedly being cleared away.
Lock was at it again a couple of minutes later, this time robbing Ben Wynne, before dispatching an early shot as he spotted Flint off his line, but the effort flew just wide of the post.
Having withstood the pressure in the latter part of the first half, Flint needed to keep their concentration levels up for the second 45 minutes, but within a minute of the restart, switched off at a throw in, and duly conceded the opening goal. The throw bisected two Flint players, into Adam Davies, who chested into the path of the unmarked Lock, who brought the ball under control before striking a sweet effort into the net from just inside the box.
Lock was now running the show for the home side, and following some good play by him on 55 minutes, he set up Lloyd, and Flint pulled off a great save with his legs to deny the forward.
It was very much one way traffic now, and just before the hour mark, the visitors were again caught napping from a throw in, this time on the right. Morgan Own received the ball, and sent in a cross to the near post, that almost caught Flint out, as the ball escaped his grasp. However, he did well to recover quickly and bravely threw himself at Davies’ feet to block the striker’s close range effort, before grabbing the loose ball.
Some nice interplay between the home side on 76 minutes led to Davies being released into the box. Ben Hughes attempted a sliding tackle, but only succeeded in bringing down the big forward, and conceded a penalty. However, Flint produced an excellent save from Lloyd’s spot kick to keep his side in the game.
But, alas, his efforts were in vain. Slack marking from a Joe Faux corner just 3 minutes later, afforded Gruff John all the space he required to strike a first time shot just inside the post.
A third was added through substitute Jake Canavan who ran through the middle of the Flint defence to meet a ball in from the left, as the away side were now looking very dispirited.
There was still time for Flint to produce another quality save as he denied Lloyd’s headed effort on 90 minutes.
Not the result or performance we were looking for at the Oval, but the inaction of the last couple of weeks combined with the heavy pitch seemed to take its toll, as the curtain came down on phase one of the league, and we must now prepare for a real battle for survival in phase two.
Report by Nigel Sheen
Line Ups:
Caernarfon Town – B. Hughes, M. Owen, S. Downey, G. John (c) (B. Hudson 81), P. Mooney, R. Sears, M. Hill (J. Faux 76), P. Mendes, A. Davies, J. Lock (J. Canavan 76), L. Lloyd. Unused Subs – H. Thomas (GK), D. Gosset, D. Thomas, C. Williams
Flint Town United – J. Flint, I. Lee, M. Burke, I. Lambert, H. Owen (c) (L. Mariette 79), S. Fofana, J. Phillips, B. Hughes (H. Cartwright 90), E. Reeves (G. Maire 90), B. Wynne (O. Simmonds 69), J. Jones. Unused Subs – L. Murphy (GK), L. Sumner, B. Hoban
Flint MOM – Jack Flint (produced some fine saves to keep his team in contention for longer than they should have been)
