Flint suffered a humiliating 7-2 Boxing Day derby defeat at the hands of Connah’s Quay Nomads to plunge them back into the bottom two, albeit on goal difference, following Briton Ferry’s win at Cardiff Met earlier in the day.
The game was effectively over in the space of the first half hour, as Nomads raced to a 4-0 lead, courtesy of some poor defensive lapses and some decent finishing. The collective inability to be able to pick up midfield runners, in particular, was to prove costly. At half time, the scoreline stood at an embarrassing 6-1, from a Flint point of view, and the only crumb of comfort from a wretched day was that at least the second half was shared 1-1.
Ironically, the first real sight of goal on 15 minutes was from some Flint attacking play, when a Jake Phillips long throw was hurled into the box, and Harry Owen and Isaac Lee caused a nuisance, before the ball fell to Izaack Lambert, but his goalbound effort was blocked just before the line. But that chance had been very much against the run of play, and Nomads had been serving notice of how dangerous they were, especially down the flanks. They were making plenty of use of the space being afforded to them in the final third, which in large part could be attributed to Flint’s attacking formation.
On 20 minutes, Chris Marriott’s raking cross field ball found Rhys Hughes on the right wing. His delivery towards the near post was touched home by Jack Kenny to give Nomads the lead. Within three minutes the score was doubled. A long ball was played up towards Callum Bratley, who was second favourite, but a calamitous mix up between Lee and Jack Flint just outside of the 18 yard box meant that Bratley was left free to gallop clear and score into an empty net.
The third and fourth goals arrived either side of the half hour mark. On 29 minutes, a long ball forward out of the Flint defence was cut out, leading to a swift counter down the right, with Bratley, Arron Williams and Noah Edwards all featuring. The ball was eventually played to Bratley situated on the edge of the area, who made the most of the space afforded to him to hit a sweet shot beyond Flint into the corner.
A couple of minutes later it was 4-0 as Nomads were taking full advantage of what was now a bemused and bedraggled looking Flint side. Bratley played the ball back into the path of Hughes, who was allowed to stride into the box, shrug off a half hearted challenge and shoot low into the corner.
Flint did manage to hit back shortly after, as Elliott Reeves latched onto a through ball, and his shot was initially blocked by George Ratcliffe in the Nomads goal, but Florian Yonsian was on hand to poke home the rebound.
But if the Silkmen thought that would prove some respite they were mistaken, as they still had time to ship two more goals before half time. With six minutes to go until the break, Edwards was given the freedom of the park to run with the ball through the centre, before finally slipping it into the path of Hughes who curled a delightful effort into the top corner.
And with two minutes to the break it was 6-1. Flint originally did well to block Edwards’ initial shot, but it rebounded back into his path and he kept his composure to slot home at the second attempt.
In a sign of manager Lee Fowler’s displeasure, four substitutions were made before the second half commenced, though by now it was a case of damage limitation.
At least in the second 45 minutes Flint did put some nice passages of play together, although the competitive edge had long since gone out of the game. Once such move resulted in Ben Wynne forcing Ratcliffe to make a good save on 59 minutes, as he tipped the midfielder’s header round the post.
Two Nomads substitutes combined to further increase their lead on 63 minutes. Ben Maher made inroads into the box before squaring the ball to the unmarked Tyler Berry, who sidefooted home.
At least Flint had the final say in the scoring stakes when the hard working Yonsian applied a clever back heel to divert the ball into the corner of the net.
We now need to quickly move on and get this result out of our system, as we face a huge match on New Year’s Day against Newtown. This will be the perfect opportunity for the players to make amends for today’s horror show as 3 points would take us above the Robins in the relegation dogfight.
Report by Nigel Sheen
Line Ups :
Connah’s Quay Nomads – G. Ratcliffe, J. Disney (c), C. Marriott, D. Roberts, K. Edwards, N. Edwards (J. Teng 81), J. Kenny (B. Maher 46), A. Williams, R. Hughes, D. Poole (T. Berry 58), C. Bratley (J. Pownall 81). Unused Subs – J. Rushton, L. Hogan, D. Flanders
Flint Town United – J. Flint, I. Lambert (M. Burke 46), I. Lee, L. Mariette (G. Maire 46), H. Owen (c), S. Fofana, J. Phillips (B. Beaumont 46), B. Hughes, E. Reeves (J. Jones 46), B. Wynne (H. Cartwright 78 ), F. Yonsian. Unused Subs – L. Murphy (GK), T. Mfuni
Flint MOM – Florian Yonsian (put in an industrious performance and deserved his two goals)
