NIALL MCGUINNESS wants Flint Town United to make the most of their relaxed festive schedule by securing a key victory at Porthmadog.

While football teams up and down the land have been asked to play on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day - often with a game in between - Flint have been fortunate.

Three Cymru North games have been scheduled for tomorrow instead of New Year’s Day, and Flint boss McGuinness wants his players to take advantage.

“No New Year’s Day game is a good thing,” said McGuinness.

“It’s always tough at the level and you can get caught out, so no Boxing Day game or New Year’s Day game is good from a manager’s point of view.”

The week between games will hopefully be enough for key attackers Mark Cadwallader and Nathan Brown to declare themselves fully fit after playing in the 3-0 success over Buckley, while Andy Brown and Danny Andrews should recover from illness.

That will leave McGuinness with a selection headache that the Flint boss is happy to have heading to Y Traeth.

“It’s a tough place to go because they are a really good side and it’s a really good club with good resources,” said McGuinness.

“If Craig Papirnyk had been there from the start of the season they would be in a different position, it’s a false position they are in.”

Flint have beaten Porthmadog twice at the Essity Stadium this campaign, winning 5-1 in the League Cup before recording a 3-1 league success.

But McGuinness, who has signed midfielder Jordan Barrow, is not expecting such an easy ride tomorrow, continuing: “It’s different going down there and we are expecting a tough time.

“They’ve got very good players and it’s one of the toughest games we’ve got left to play this season.

“Hopefully we can go down there, put in a good performance and pick up an important three points.”

Nick Ward is confident Gresford Athletic can end their nine-match winless league run sooner rather than later.

The Clappers Lane outfit, who have signed Harvey Ellis from Airbus, have failed to pick up all three points since thumping Corwen 6-2 at the end of September.

But assistant boss Ward, who will hand the reins back over to director of football Steve Halliwell at Ruthin tomorrow, is encouraged by what he has seen recently.

“The players are thinking their way through games better now in terms of movement and possession,” said Ward. “Ruthin isn’t an easy place to go, but we can get something from the game if we manage to play our level for 90 minutes. It’s that consistency that’s missing at the moment.

“I’m confident it’s going to drop for us soon and we will be back to winning ways.”