Spectators who turned up for this early kick off at the Essity certainly got their money’s worth in terms of entertainment as they witnessed no less than 13 goals, with Flint running out 9-4 winners in an astonishing match. The weather forecast was for heavy showers, but whilst it stayed largely dry for the duration of the game, it instead rained plenty of goals.
Flint were caught cold on 6 minutes, when Nyasha Mwamuka received the ball in space for the visitors and moved it on to Jamie Breese, who showed he’d lost none of his killer instinct when he smartly fired past Rhys Williams to put the visitors ahead.
Lee Fowler’s side reacted well to this early setback, and played a high temp pressing game that was to ultimately pay dividends. The equaliser arrived on 16 minutes, following a good attack down the left. Luis Lacey crossed the ball into the box, and it ended up falling to Rhys Kavanagh who was stationed about 16 yards out, and struck it with the outside of his foot and into the net beyond the dive of Llanidloes keeper Luke Evans.
From this point on, Flint were generally in control of the game, and their quick movement and passing was proving a real problem for the away side.
Elliott Reeves cut in from the left on 33 minutes and curled a sublime shot into the top corner from 20 yards of the net to make it 2-1 to the Silkmen.
He could have nabbed a second a few minutes later, when Josh Jones saw his effort parried away following an excellent passage of play, the rebound falling to Reeves, but his follow up struck the post from close range.
Luis Lacey, who was posing a constant threat down the Flint left, delivered an inch perfect cross on 40 minutes, and Jones was on hand to head home to make it 3-1.
On 45 minutes, Lacey was again causing problems, and looked to deliver a low curling ball into the area. Jake Phillips showed good awareness on seeing the trajectory of the delivery, and threw a perfect dummy that allowed the ball to curl into the corner of the net, having completely deceived Evans.
Llanidloes hit back from the restart with the game moving into added time. From the kick off, the ball, was played back and then hit long, finding the gap between the Flint defensive line and the keeper. Breese found himself in the space to take full advantage and slot past Williams to reduce the arrears.
Flint picked up where they had left off at the start of the second half in terms of moving the ball around quickly, and executed an excellent passing move on 50 minutes, that resulted in Lacey pushing the ball into the path of Jones, who raced into the area, sidestepped Evans as he came out to try and block, and slid the ball home from an acute angle to make it 5-2.
A couple of minutes later, Jones turned provider with a through ball into Reeves, who calmly rounded Evans before thumping home.
To their credit Llanidloes kept plugging away, and Connor Bird pulled one back for them on 68 minutes, showing good control in bringing the ball down on his chest before applying a good finish.
The game was now starting to resemble a basketball match, and four minutes later, Flint went up the other end to make it 7-3. Harley Peagram raced down the right, and delivered to Jones, who in turn played it onto Reeves whom swept the ball home to complete his hat trick.
Bird then got his second of the game for the visitors on 75 minutes, as he was allowed to latch onto a through ball and power it past Williams.
With 10 minutes remaining, Peagram produced a nice delivery from the right, that found Jean-Louis Akpa-Akpro on the bye-line just beyond the far post. He nodded back into the path of Jones, who duly slotted home to claim his own hat-trick.
With the last move of the game, Kavanagh, who had started Flint’s scoring spree, aptly finished it off, as he raced onto a defence splitting pass from Reeves, before dispatching his shot beyond the reach of Evans.
All in all, a goal crazy afternoon at the Essity, with some excellent forward play by Flint slightly tempered by some lax defending.
Report by Nigel Sheen. Photographs by Geoff Quinn. For full album copy and paste he following link into your browser : https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnys/albums
Line Ups :
Flint Town United – R. Williams (L. Murphy 89), J. Phillips, S. Forde, A. Stephens, P. Lacey (M. Roberts 57), B. Hughes (H. Peagram 52), L. Lacey, J. Owen (c) (J-L Akpa-Akpro 57), R. Kavanagh, E. Reeves, J. Jones Unused Subs – H. Cartwright, A. Mather
Llanidloes Town – L. Evans, R. Evans (A. Bales 64), J. Orbell, D. Lewis, E. Jones, A. Worton, E. Clarke, G. Clarke (S. Gomes 86), C. Bird, J. Breese. N. Mwamuka
Flint MOM – Luis Lacey (was instrumental in getting his side into the ascendency of the game with his attacking play down the left side and deliveries into the box)
