Shot shy Flint sunk by Harbourmen

A Flint side missing several players, through injury and unavailability, were a pale shadow of the team that performed so well last week.

Although they generally had the better of the first period, before conceding a penalty shortly before half time, a subdued response after the interval from the Silkmen saw them go two goals behind before salvaging a late consolation.
On 5 minutes the first chance of the afternoon was created from a Levi Mackin free kick. Chris Budrys flicked it on into the path of Joel Haack, and his header from 6 yards out was well kept out by Ceiron Hall in the Holyhead goal.
The home side created an opportunity after 13 minutes, when Tomos Clarke won a battle with Mackin for the ball, and from then on surged into the area before hitting his effort over the bar from a wide angle on the right.
Rob Jones played in Kyle Smyth on 20 minutes, and his well struck shot from 20 yards produced another good save from Hall.
On the half hour mark, Mackin, who had been playing at left back owing to the shortage of full backs, had to depart the action with what looked like a hamstring injury. From that point on, the shape of the visitors became more and more disjointed, and the home side gradually assumed the upper hand.
Five minutes before the break, Holyhead got the benefit of the penalty decision. A couple of Flint players attempted to charge down a shot just inside the box, and as both Chris Li and Stefan Halewood, went to ground to try and block the effort, the ball appeared to strike an arm, which the referee deemed to be in an unnatural position. Kenleigh Owen took responsibility from the spot and duly put his side 1-0 up.
Early in the second half Flint forced a flurry of corners in quick succession, but only on one occasion did they manage to get an effort on target, and once more Hall was on hand to deny then, by producing a good block on the line.
Hotspur then had the balance of the play for the remainder of the match, with Flint becoming increasingly ragged in attack, with aimless balls being pumped up the pitch that were easily picked off by their opponents.
Owen escaped down the left on 56 minutes, and pinged in an excellent cross to Mel McGinness, but the Hotspur front man's first time effort was saved by Nik Lee-Bulmer, as he flung out his leg to block the shot. Then, a few minutes later, McGinness beat the offside trap and raced in on goal, but Bulmer was out quick to deny him the goal scoring chance.
As the game entered the last 20 minutes, Dean Garmey hit a good effort from 22 yards, that whistled just past the Flint post. However, on 78 minutes, the decisive second goal arrived courtesy of a free kick and some sloppy defending. Alex Jones got up to put a free header back across the goal, where an unmarked Ryan Taylor was on hand to shoot home from close range.
Flint did belatedly get on the scoresheet with 9 minutes to go, when Budrys powered in a header from a corner, but they were unable to fashion any other decent chances in the closing stages and so could not rescue a point.

Line Ups :
Holyhead Hotspur - C. Hall, D. McGinness, K. Hilditch, C. Jones, A. Jones, M. Kelly (c), T. Clarke, D. Garmey, M. McGinness (R. Taylor 63), D. Thomas, K. Owen. Unused Subs - R. Brown, A. Goss, M. Williams
Flint Town United - N. Lee-Bulmer, J. Haack (K. Price 63), L. Mackin (J. Hooper 30), C. Li, C. Rodgers (c), S. Halewood, L. Tyson, R. Jones, W. Maxwell (S. Beck 75), C. Budrys, K. Smyth. Unused Subs - I. Rogers, J. Hill

Goalscorers :
Holyhead Hotspur - Kenleigh Owen (40), Ryan Taylor (78)
Flint Town United - Chris Budrys (81)

Bookings :
Flint Town United : Stefan Halewood (40)

Flint MOM - Chris Budrys (more often than not won his personal duel with his marker, but lacked someone running off him to make the most of his flicks)