Derby Defeat but Silkmen are far from disgraced

The Silkmen started brightly and were exuding confidence by knocking the ball around with aplomb. But a foul on the edge of the area was to prove costly after 11 minutes. Danny Davies stepped up, and despite being so close to the goal, he managed to curl the ball over the edge of the Flint wall and past John Danby into the net via the post, to give Nomads the edge.
The danger from a Flint point of view was if they allowed this body blow to deflate them. However, this did not prove to be the case. Far from it, in fact, as they responded to the setback extremely well, with only a free header from Callum Morris on the quarter of an hour mark, threatening Danby's goal, as he met Jay Owen's cross. But he placed it wide of the post. From that point on, though, the Silkmen were generally the better side for the remainder of the half. The closest they came to getting back on terms was in the 25th minute, when a free kick was partially cleared, but fell to the feet of Ben Maher, whose shot cannoned back off the post. Just our luck that whilst our effort hit the woodwork and bounced out, the Nomads goal had struck the post and gone in. That's what generally happens when you are stuck down the bottom, the breaks never seem to fall your way.
Then, Mark Cadwallader turned sharply and hit an effort from around 20 yards out, but it curled into the arms of Oliver Byrne rather than away from him. For the rest of the half, Flint had the upper hand in terms of possession, but rarely troubled the Nomads goal, playing some nice football in areas that weren't really hurting their opponents, and being unable to find a way to get in behind their back line.
As we moved into the second half, it looked increasingly like any way back for the Silkmen would be via a set piece rather than from open play, as the Nomads defence were adept at snuffing out any attacking threats. Maher made some very intelligent runs, which could have provided the breakthrough, but unfortunately his teammates were often too slow to react and failed to pick him out, instead playing square balls or short forward passes, which were not posing any threat to the home side's rearguard.
The critical second goal arrived on 72 minutes. A long throw was cleared to just outside of the box, and into the path of Salomen Dool, who had only been introduced to the game from the bench a couple of minutes previously, and he struck a fierce shot that flashed between Danby and his post to double Nomads' advantage.
That took the wind out of the Silkmen's sails and although they changed their formation to push four up front, they were unable to get any decent service up to their forwards, and Nomads were able to comfortably see out the remainder of the game, creating some decent half chances for themselves in the process.
Finally, a word of praise for the three officials tonight, all of whom had a good game, and went some way to restoring our faith in the world of officiating following our recent experiences. It was also nice to note that we came through a game without any bookings !

Line Ups :
Connah's Quay Nomads - O. Byrne, J. Disney, P. Farquharson, G. Horan (c), D. Harrison (S. Dool 70), C. Morris, M. Wilde (C. Curran 80), D. Poole, J. Owen (A. Williams 46), D. Davies, A. Edwards. Unused Subs - C. Darling (GK), B. Shaw, S. Williams
Flint Town United - J. Danby, W. Baynes (T. Kemp 76), S. Hart, K. Edwards, B. Nash, N. Craig, B. Maher, R, Foulkes (c), C. Harwood, M. Cadwallader (B. Steer 69), C. Bratley. Unused Subs - A. Jones (GK), K. Wallis, A. Brown

Flint MOM - Ben Maher (really growing into his role and should be a pivotal figure for the team for the remainder of the season)