Eighteen-year-old livewire Rosie Hughes proved why she is regarded as one of North Wales’ most talented young players after scoring a dazzling double and providing an assist in yesterday’s fine win over Berriew at the Essity Stadium.
Attacking central-midfielder Hughes, one of three sisters playing in Elliott Hale’s side, moved up to 12 goals for the season, with 11 netted in her last five games, and a club highest 22 overall since the team formed at the start of 2022-23.
The teenage trickster opened the scoring on 11 minutes with a beautiful goal, bursting down the right, leaving a defender standing and finishing past the keeper with assured brilliance.
Berriew are one of the better sides in the East division and they equalised on 20 minutes through Yasmin Griffiths.
Flint have been rolling teams over in recent matches, but they had a battle on their hands here and it remained 1-1 up to the interval.
The Silkwomen went 2-1 up on the hour when Rosie Hughes produced a dynamic run from midfield and slipped the ball to Zoe Stopford, who finished smartly for her 13th goal of the campaign, having netted in each of her last six matches.
Flint needed another one to make it safe and when it came in the 88th minute it was something very special.
Rosie Hughes made a run at the Berriew defence, headed left, then veered right leaving the opposition mesmerised and scored an absolute stunner with her right boot.
As her watching granddad rightly shouted: “what a beauty”.
Winning manager Hale said: “What a great game and tough thought it was, it was also a good and exciting test as a group.
“Overall, it was a game of two halves. We couldn’t get going for the first 15/20 minutes. “Defensively, we got it right but just couldn’t get the ball to stick in the final third until Rosie struck one home.
“We started to settle and play football on the front foot, but Berriew also pressed and countered really well, applying pressure and equalising, and forcing it all on us to deal with .
“For the second half, we had to look to build with movement off the ball and not force the ball to steady their pressure coming at us. We showed great character and resilience to go and get the next goal to give ourselves breathing space with another great finish from Zoe.
“After that you could start to see the fitness levels and desire to go and get more, which led to Rosie scoring a wonderful goal.”
Flint are now top of the North Wales East table with a record of five straight wins and they have registered 10 victories on the bounce, amassing 71 goals in the process.
Becky Bott
Taylia Chaloner
Chloe Hughes
Charlotte Walters (Jennifer Haynes 66)
Caitlin Latham
Daisy Hughes
Ruby McGilloway (c)
Zoe Stopford (Kaelyn Williams 84)
Rosie Hughes
Ruby Hastings
Jasmine Edwards (Tegan Crockett 45)
Dec 10: Berriew (league – h) 3-1
Nov 26: Caernarfon Town (Betty Pickering Cup – h) 9-0
Nov 12: Kinmel Bay (BPC – h) 9-3
Nov 5: Caernarfon Town (BPC – a) 11-2
Oct 15: Bellevue (league – h) 16-0
Oct 1: Northop Hall (league – a) 3-1
Sep 10: Denbigh Town (league – a) 6-3
Sep 3: Kinmel Bay (league – h) 3-0
2022-23 season
May 14: Llanfairfechan Town (league – a) 8-2
May 7: NFA (league – a) 3-2
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