Flint Town United 1 Gap Connah

Team: Adam McGee, Chris Rielly, Danny Dobbins, Jason Renshaw, John Davies, John Hill (capt), Stewart Carroll, Paul Williams, Simon Thelwell, Shaun Beck, Phill Lloyd.
Subs: Matty Harvey 35, Jon Rush 63, Stuart Hughes 66, Luke Tyson, Jamie Watkinson.
Cards: Yellow: Jason Renshaw 19.
Red: Simon Thelwell 39.

Connah”s Quay took the honours in this local derby 2-1 but Flint will feel hard done by despite playing the whole of the second half with 10 men. Connah”s Quay put us under a lot of pressure from the start with Flint not really getting into their stride. It was on 20 minutes that the deadlock was broken when Danny Dobinns was adjudged to handle in the box and Gary O”Toole converted the awarded penalty. Flint almost got level on 23 minutes a Shaun Beck effort was blocked 3 yards out. On 39 minutes a major turning point in the game was when the Ref Nathan Brierley sent of Flints Simon Thelwell for an alleged challenge on Craig Jones but it was clear to see that it was Jones who fouled and should have been shown the red card. On 40 minutes the ref Brierley blows up for half time, 5 minutes short. It seemed to be all about the referee in the first half with some shocking decisions.
To their credit Flint came out second half and were by far the better side, almost scoring on 66 minutes when Shaun Beck hits the post after some good linkup play with Chris Reilly. Flint again were unlucky on 80 minutes, this time Phill Lloyd sees his headed effort cleared of the line by Michael Robinson. The equaliser did come on 84 minutes when a Phill Lloyd cross to the far post finds Shaun Beck who heads across into the bottom corner of the net. Just as it looked as if Flints hard work was to pay off a minute later on 85 minutes A harmless 45 yard free kick by the Quays Rob Jones is played in but Flint keeper McGee throws himself over the ball and it rolls into the net to secure the points for the Quay.
Not a great boxing day result but it does concern most when in this modern day football a referee in the calibre as Nathan Brierley is allowed to officiate in games such as the cymru alliance standard as he was out of shape and very much out of his depth and if this is all that the cymru alliance can allocate then welsh football is in a mess and needs to review its refereeing policy urgently.

Report by Will Price.