NIALL MCGUINNESS revealed that his worst fears came true as Flint Town United lost further ground in the title race.

The Silkmen raced into a two-goal lead at Conwy courtesy of Mark Cadwallader and Nathan Brown, but the Tangerines hit back to earn a share of the spoils through Corrig McGonigle’s brace.

That was only half the story, however, as Flint saw two goals ruled out, missed a penalty and felt Iolo Hughes should have seen red 10 minutes earlier than he did for scything down Alex Titchener.

Conwy’s first goal also came from a high debatable free-kick, while the home side felt they should have had a penalty of their own, while Flint could have been given a second one.

“It was a bad day,” said Flint boss McGuinness. “When we were winning 2-1 I still had a feeling that something was going to happen and it did.”

On the various decisions that went against the Silkmen, McGuinness was left scratching his head.

He continued: “Caddy has had a goal ruled out in the first minute and then they scored from a free-kick after a great tackle by Chris Li - the ball goes exactly where it should do if he’d won it.

“We then scored again and it was given offside and both teams could have had a penalty and their centre-half should have been sent-off for fouling Titch when he was clean through. There were seven or eight key decisions and none of them were right.

“We’ve basically won the game 4-2 and that’s frustrating because we’ve ended up dropping two points, like we did at Bangor when we had a perfectly good goal disallowed. People say they even themselves out, but we haven’t had anyone score against us and have the goal ruled out.”

On his side’s performance as a whole, which was impacted by the precautionary removal of Cadwallader at the break, McGuinness continued: “I actually don’t think we were great.

“When we go in-front in games we need to be more confident in ourselves and make sure we don’t give the opposition hope. It’s frustrating.”

Conwy first team coach Chris Morrell said: “Once again the young lads showed unbelievable spirit to come back with 10-men against an excellent Flint side.

I think both teams may have some grievance with a few decisions, but that’s football and officials, players and managers all make mistakes.”