With the late withdrawal of Gareth Rowland, Rich Ackerley managed to steal the gloves from dad Rob's grip when he was brought in to make his first team debut at Cae y Castell and it must be said he was totally unphased by his late call up and settled into the game from the off. Other changes saw the return of Simon Smith following suspension, Kevin Hope was brought into the starting line up with Tom Hughes missing through injury and Jon Paul Wood was in the squad following his transfer window move from Chirk. Gresford know from past experience that midweek games at Flint are never easy and with them sitting 4th in the table and having made a number of changes during the transfer window this trip was never going to be any different but the visitors settled into the game well and good midfield work from both sides saw opportunity's being created but neither keeper were particularly troubled with Gresford finishing the half feeling that they should have maybe taken the lead in the 38th minute when good work from Simon Smith saw his strike run across the face of the Flint goal with unfortunately no one in the area close enough to connect. Flint appeared to come out more determined in the second half however Gresford saw chances from Owen Roberts and Darren Jones running wide but it was the home side who took the lead in the 62nd minute following a 30 yard free kick being delivered into the box with Steve Hughes managing to get the slightest of touches onto Shaun beck who had crept in behind the Gresford defence. Kevin Hope saw a good opportunity to level the score go wide in the 22nd minute and despite some good play the visitors continued to fail to bring keeper Andy Hughes into real action and it was Rich Ackerley who kept them in the hunt in the 39th minute with a strong save when the ball was driven low into the box. The introduction of Jon P Wood for Darren Jones, Ian Matthias for Kev Hope and Nathan Pugh for the injured Owen Roberts saw the visitors put the Flint goal under pressure and a from a corner in the 86th minute they felt they should have found the back of the net during the resulting goal mouth scramble which unfortunately saw the ball sail over the bar. Flint held onto their 1 goal lead to gain the 3 points which sees them retain 4th place and Gresford went away hoping for better luck in Saturdays home fixture. |
