NIALL MCGUINNESS would prefer Flint Town United to avoid the Cymru Premier elite in today’s third round draw.

But McGuinness is confident his Silkmen can give anyone a run for their money after easing into the next stage of the competition courtesy of a 3-1 success at Flintshire rivals Greenfield.

The 12 Cymru Premier teams join the remaining 20 sides from the leagues below in the last 32 of the competition and McGuinness is keeping an open mind regarding the draw.

“You get who you get and I’m confident that we can give whoever we are drawn against a good game,” said McGuinness.

“You want to get as far as you can in the competition, so avoiding TNS or Connah’s Quay might be a good thing.

“Maybe a south Wales trip would be good for team bonding and good for the lads. Penrhyncoch is the furthest we’ve been since I’ve been in charge.

“Avoiding the top six of the Cymru Premier would be good, but we look forward to the draw.”

Flint pretty much wrapped up their place in today’s draw inside 20 minutes of Saturday’s meeting with Greenfield as Nathan Brown struck twice after Callum Bratley had opened the scoring.

Sam Jones pulled a goal back for Greenfield, who earned the praise of McGuinness for their never-say-die attitude.

“We could have scored twice before we did get the first goal,” said McGuinness. “As daft as it sounds though, going 3-0 up so quickly killed us because the lads became too relaxed.

“I’ve got to give massive credit to Greenfield. They could have folded at 3-0 down after 20 minutes, but they got a goal and managed to contain us for the rest of the game.

“We are through to the next round though, and that’s all we wanted from what could have been a really tricky game.”

Greenfield boss Scott Beck was equally enthused by his side’s battling display after they were caught cold early on in proceedings by visiting Flint.

Beck tweeted: “Got to give credit to the @Greenfieldfc lads.

“Not many teams would go 3-0 down against quality opposition and show the character we did.

“Thought for 75 minutes we gave @FlintTownFC a good game but they were ruthless when it mattered.”

Greenfield’s fellow Welsh Alliance counterparts, Nantlle Vale, are also out after Julian Williams gave Colwyn Bay a 1-0 away win.