Cardiff Met won their second consecutive game as they defeated ten-man Flint Town United at Cyncoed Campus.
Lewis Rees scored the only goal of the game just before the hour mark after Anthony Stephens’ dismissal 30 minutes into the match.
The result sees Cardiff Met rise to second in the table with four wins out of five whilst Flint now sit in fourth place and are four points behind league leaders TNS.
The match got off to a slow start with nothing much separating the two teams. The first drama came thirty minutes into the first half when Flint’s Anthony Stephens recklessly showed his studs to the Achilles of the attacking Matt Chubb.
It gave the referee no choice but to show him a straight red card in return. The central defender headed for the changing rooms with no complaints.
Flint a man light then sat back in their own half, absorbing waves of Cardiff Met attack, to see the first half finish at 0-0.
The second half picked up where the first had finished, with the Silkmen happy to sit in and invite Cardiff Met to try and make something happen. The first and only goal of the match came after Lewis Rees turned home an Eliot Evans cross to make it 1-0.
Ryan Jenkins’ instruction to his team was to now make as many passes as possible before the end of the game. In other words, don’t let the North Wales side have the ball. Flint still showed signs of danger, especially when forcing Met into conceding throw-ins high up the pitch and launching it long in towards the head of their target man Brandon Diau, who was overall well defended by Emlyn Lewis and Tom Price.
With five minutes to go the match looked all but finished, when a final twist saw Flint be awarded a free-kick from 30 yards out.
After lofting the ball into the box, it was headed out for a corner. The last play of the match saw the ball be rattled against the upright of the goal, before being hooked out of danger to the relief of Cardiff Met, inviting the referee to blow for full time.