Ceiber’s goalkeeper Dan Field was in superb form on the day, especially in the first period, and at times almost single handedly kept his side in the game. A combination of Field’s brilliance and some poor finishing at times by the Silkmen, looked to have the game at stalemate at half time. But as the match entered added on time, a Sam Hart corner delivery was well met by Alex Jones, and on this occasion Field could only look on helplessly as the ball powered into the net.
Flint’s first half frustrations began in the ninth minute, when Jack Kenny’s effort was cleared off the line by Brandon Hill. Then, a couple of minutes later, some good work by Alex Jones set up Ben Maher, whose shot was well kept out by Field in what was to be the first of several telling contributions. He then thwarted Maher again on 25 minutes with an even better save. Just after that, Kenny was through and perhaps should have got the better of Field, but instead the keeper denied him, before keeping out a Michael Wilde header in the follow up attack.
When Field was beaten, as was the case in the 36th minute, from a ball delivered across the 6 yard box by Kenny to Wilde, his defenders were on hand to save the situation, as they somehow scrambled the ball off the line as Wilde failed to get enough purchase on his effort.
The breakthrough on the stroke of half time looked to have settled any fears of a cup upset, but to their credit Ceiber had other ideas and upped the ante at the start of the second period, and managed to force their way back into the game.
A cross was delivered from the right, and with Flint’s defenders struggling to deal with it, two Ceiber players looked to have gotten telling touches, the second one being from Luke Morgan who glanced it past Jon Rushton into the back of the net, to the absolute delight of the home support.
Ceiber now had their tails well and truly up, and Flint had to endure a rocky five minutes or so, as the hosts set about them with gusto, with Joe Jenkins, in particular looking a threat every time he was on the ball. With Dan Roberts on a booking, Ben Nash was brought on to steady the ship in the middle of the defence, and Flint managed to regain their composure.
A long Jake Phillips throw on 60 minutes, was initially met by Wilde, before Jones headed it towards the far post, where Mark Cadwallader slid in to put the Silkmen 2-1 up in the tie.
Ceiber now had to commit more bodies forward, and it was always likely they might get caught on the break. They should have been punished on 65 minutes, when Maher made a terrific break, and teed the ball up perfectly for Kenny, but he could only shoot straight at Field.
However, the Flint marksman was to eventually get the better of his nemesis, when Maher picked him out with a great long pass on 75 minutes, and this time he ran clear of the last defender and coolly slotted past Field to make the game safe for the visitors.
Hart broke down the left in the dying stages and crossed to Maher, but once again Field was on hand to foil the Flint man. But by then, the game had effectively been won. Full credit to Ceiber for their battling display, and on this showing it was not hard to understand how they had shocked Ammanford 3-0 in the previous round.
