RHYL’s feint hopes of mounting a late Huws Gray Alliance title challenge were dealt a heavy blow as they were downed 2-0 at Flint Town United.

The Lilywhites had nothing to show from what turned out to be a scrappy affair between the two sides, with Silkmen boss Niall McGuinness securing a victory against his former club to move them within seven points of the summit.

Eddie Maurice-Jones’ men have the opportunity to blow the championship race wide open this Saturday when they travel to Airbus Broughton (2.30pm), with United travelling to Conwy Borough.

A cagey first half brought little in the way of goalmouth action, with Gareth Partridge missing the best chance of the period from a visiting perspective when he blazed over after just two minutes.

The home side were fortunate to keep 11 men on the field when Richie Foulkes received only a yellow card for a fierce challenge on defender Reece Fairhurst, with former Lilies’ forward Mark Cadwallader heading over just before the break.

After the interval saw Sam Molyneux force a smart stop from home custodian Alex Jones following good work from Cai Owen and Mike Pritchard in the opening exchanges, with Cadwallader rattling the crossbar at the other end on 56 minutes after some outstanding work in the build-up to create the opportunity.

United did not have to wait much longer to break the deadlock, and it was defender Ieuan Hewitt who was allowed the freedom of Cae y Castell before unleashing a powerful long-range effort past Jonathan Hill-Dunt on 58 minutes.

Things went from bad-to-worse for the visitors soon after when they conceded a penalty on 67 minutes, and Foulkes kept his cool to slot home and double the hosts’ advantage.

Substitutes James Murphy and Joe Sullivan both went close to reducing the arrears after making an instant impact, with Ben Nash firing over late on to round off a miserable afternoon in front of goal for the Lilywhites.