Disaster for Rhyl 1879 as nearest challengers Flint Mountain hit them for six!

ARDAL NORTH WEST LEAGUE – MARCH 20

Flint Mountain 6 (Kershaw 17 & 32; Brown 45+7, Hayes 45+13, Simpson 84, Hughes 90)
CPD Y Rhyl 1879 1 (Parry pen 29)

When was the last time a team in ANY league leading the table by 11 points suffered a 6-1 defeat?

Has to be as rare an occurrence as rocking horse droppings.

Well it happened tonight at the Essity Stadium, where second-place Flint Mountain closed the gap on table-toppers Rhyl 1879 to eight points with FIVE games in hand after hammering the Lilywhites out of sight.

Mountain completed a league double over Gareth Thomas’ men, who they whipped 4-1 at Belle Vue early in the season.

In between, 1879 had knocked Aden Shannon’s side out of the FAW Trophy in December by a 3-2 scoreline.

Revenge was sweet this evening for a Mountain outfit which now must be in with a big chance of finishing up champions.

Rhyl still have lots of points to play for, but how will tonight’s scoreline affect the confidence, especially as they also lost 1-0 at home on Saturday to Holyhead Hotspur?

The hosts took a 17th minute lead at the Essity when Ryan Kershaw drove into the box and hit a shot which deflected past keeper Ryan Woods.

It was one-apiece on 29 minutes when Rhyl earned a penalty which Callum Parry converted.

Three minutes later, the home team made it 2-1 when Kershaw curled a delightful free kick over the wall and into the bottom corner.

Things got much worse for the visitors in first half stoppage time.

In the seventh added minute, Jack Sconce swung in a corner which was turned into a goal by an Andy Brown bullet header.

Thirteen minutes had been played over the 45 when Joe Holt fed a controlled volley over the Rhyl defence and Mike Hayes shrugged off his marker, passed the goalkeeper and tapped into the net.

Half-time: Flint Mountain 4 Rhyl 1879 1

In dire straits, the Lilywhites showed some fight at the start of the second half, forcing keeper John Danby into a couple of fine saves.

There was no further score, however, until the 84th minute – and it was Flint who struck for a fifth time.

Kershaw hit a free kick to the back post, Aaron Simpson controlled and fired home for 5-1.

Rob Hughes made it six with a finish from a tight angle following good work from Tom Ruffer.

To complete Rhyl’s misery, James Jones was shown a late red card.

Mountain travel to Hawarden Rangers this Saturday, while Rhyl host Brickfield Rangers.