Penybont claimed a narrow 1-0 victory over Flint Town United to increase their hopes of securing a top six spot.
Nathan Wood’s 11th minute strike gave Rhys Griffiths men the victory in a closely-fought encounter at the Essity Stadium.
The Bridgend side move up to fifth as a result of their win and are four points clear with a game in hand of seventh-placed Caernarfon Town meanwhile The Silkmen remain outside of the relegation zone despite the defeat.
Penybont understandably started the game the brighter of the two sides, the match fitness from their 2-0 defeat to Newtown on Tuesday the clear difference in the opening exchanges. Bont nullified all effort by Flint to build up any sort of rhythm and notions of a second poor game in a week were dispelled in the opening 15 minutes as the Rhys Griffiths’ men could have been 3-0 up.
In only the second minute the away side had the ball in the back of the net after good hold up play by Sam Snaith fed Kostya Georgievsky who flicked the ball past the onrushing Jon Rushton. Luckily for the Flint defence they found the lineman’s flag raised, but would fail to heed this early warning.
Snaith and Georgievsky continued to cause trouble and with Bont’s direct attacking play Flint could not get near any blue shirts. The deserved breakthrough came in the 12th minute when Georgievsky and Mael Davies combined down the right to cut the ball back to Nathan Wood. Bont’s number 10 made a difficult chance look easy as he swept a half volley into the corner of the net for his second of the season.
Penybont did not relent and attack after attack was launched at the Flint backline. Georgievsky should have doubled his side’s lead mid way through the half when Mael Davies freed himself in the middle of the park and clipped a ball into the box for Georgievsky. The spiretly nattacker had the freedom of the Flint box but could not beat the oncoming Rushton.
For much of the first half an hour Flint were nothing but bystanders. Neil Gibson elected to play five new signings, three of which were in his backline and it showed. Often there were large gaps for Penybont to exploit and a lack of understanding between Gumbs and Edwards in the centre of defence was evident. A couple smart saves by Rushton and poor finishing by Bont were all that kept the score at 1-0.
However, out of nowhere Flint sparked to life on the 30 minute mark. Debutant Jordan Buckley who’s touches of the ball could be counted on one hand before then almost made the tie level. An exquisite turn on the half way line, then a flick past Jeffries left the big man with a route to goal. His impressive surge of pace left the defence but Morris came out sharply to deny him a magnificent solo goal.
For all the action of the first half Penybont successfully shut down and controlled the second. Chances became few and far between and credit must go to Rhys Griffiths and his team for a disciplined and impressive second half. Flint had the lion share of possession but rarely looked like they had the quality to force an equaliser.
Indeed a similar problem was apparent with Flint’s attack as it was with their defence. Josh Amis came on to partner Mitch Duggan and Jordan Buckley in making their debuts. This was a typical frustrating performance of a team who have not played together before.
With five minutes remaining Duggan saw his low drive end up in the side netting when a cross was perhaps the better option and in the dying embers of the game Buckley’s acrobatic effort could only flash wide of the post. Despite getting into some good positions the Silkmen could not deliver with any real quality and these late half chances were all they could muster.
The influential Georgievsky would have the best of the Penybont chances late on when he was set free down the left and burst towards the box. But after 90 minutes of running and on his left foot, his wild effort was closer to Connah’s Quay than the Flint goal.
Flint Town United: John Rushton, Eddie Clarke, Kai Edwards, Rob Hughes (Sam Hart, 78), Mark Cadwallader (Josh Amis, 63), Callum Bratley, Evan Gums, Mitchell Duggan, Jordan Buckley, Ben Maher (C), Tom Kemp (Richie Foulkes, 71)
Yellow Cards: Rob Hughes 27, Jordan Buckley 45+2, Mitchell Duggan 45+4, Eddie Clarke 67, Josh Amis 87, Sam Hart 90+4
Penybont: Ashley Morris, Kane Owen (C), Ashley Evans (Liam Walsh, 51), Dan Jefferies, Mael Davies, Kostya Georgievsky, Nathan Wood, Oli Dalton, Sam Snaith (Ben Ahmun, 67), Billy Borge, Connor Davies.
Goals: Nathan Wood 11′
Yellow Cards: Connor Davies 61, Liam Walsh 88’
Recap the action from the Essity Stadium by looking through our live blog below:
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