Holywell Town 1-3 Flint Town United

The Wellmen welcomed local rivals Flint Town United to Halkyn Road for a festive cracker and over 800 packed into the ground to witness what they hoped to be a Christmas cracker.

Flint had the first chance of the game when striker Andy Brown fired over after a good cross in from the right. A few minutes later, the visitors had taken the lead. A run down the wing by James Hooper saw him cross the ball over from the byline, and the ball fell to RIchard Foulkes on the edge of the box and he looked up and placed his shot over debutant goalkeeper Keighan Jones and into the top corner. This was not the start the Wellmen wanted.

Holywell nearly made it a quick reply, from a corner, the ball whipped into the far post and was headed back toward the centre of the goal by Graeme Williams but as the ball beat goalkeeper Ben Jones, the visitors were thankful of a defender to clear the ball to safety. A few minutes later, the wellmen had equalised. Shaun Tuck picked up the ball close to the halfway line and went on a run, beating 2 defenders before he was brought down inside the box by John Davies. The referee pointed to the spot and Tuck got up to take the spotkick himself and fired home beating Jones in the Flint Town goal.

Instantly, the visitors attacked from the kick off and regained their lead a minute after Town's goal, Richard Foulkes again the scorer. A header to the right of Jones' goal saw Jones get a touch to it, but could only go and push the ball onto the post and the ball fell into the net. Again, Town were chasing the game and looked for the equaliser. Town then won a penalty as Graeme Williams was fouled by Chris Li, and up stepped Tuck to take the spot kick. This time however, goalkeeper Jones guessed correctly and dived low to his right to save the ball and gathered it close to him to prevent Tuck getting an opportunity from a rebound. Still the Wellmen pressed for the equaliser and a good move involving Phil Lloyd and Graeme Williams saw the ball laid off to Matty Hurdman who's shot was saved by Jones. The score remained Holywell 1-2 Flint Town at the half time interval.

The Second half began and the Wellmen looked to get back on level terms. Half a chance fell to Tuck but his effort was blocked before Flint's Kyle Smith headed straight at Jones in Holywell's goal. The Wellmen were putting pressure on the Flint goal, but their back four coped really well and despite a lot of possession, the Wellmen barely had a shot on target. The visitors were still dangerous, and a break from their defence saw Flint race clear and Ross Ankers was forced to clear the ball to safety. Holywell then won a free kick and Hurdmans free kick over into the danger area saw the ball fall to Gareth Sudlow, but his shot on the turn fell wide of the goal.

Flint still had chances, and they won a free kick in a dangerous position. Foulkes, looking for his hat trick, took the kick and it went wide of the home side's goal. With the game heading into the last quarter, Holywell were reduced to 10 men. Gareth Sudlow was shown a straight red card as he brought down Andy Brown, and as he was the last defender, the referee had no alternative but to show Sudlow the red card. The resulting free kick thankfully came to nothing.

Keighan Jones pulled off a brilliant save to deny Foulkes his hat trick, doing a flying save to tip over Foulkes header for a corner. Flint Town brought on Luke Tyson and as the game entered the 90th minute, he had an effort fall inches wide before deep into injury time, he capped off the visitors win by breaking clear from the halfway line, and as JOnes came out to narrow the angle, Tyson rounded jones to slot home, much to the delight of the visiting supporters.

It was deserved victory for the Silkmen and for Town, we know we have to get the result out of the system as soon as possible and get back to winning ways.

THe club would like to thank the huge attendance at the game and we are thankful of your support.