NIALL MCGUINNESS has conceded defeat in Flint Town United’s title challenge after losing 1-0 at runaway leaders Prestatyn Town.

Danny Davies settled the top of the contest clash at Bastion Gardens on the hour mark to leave Prestatyn 16 points clear at the summit.

Flint have two games in-hand on Neil Gibson’s men, but boss McGuinness knows it will take a freak set of results between now and the end of the season to see Prestatyn lose top spot.

“Yes. 100 per cent,” said McGuinness when asked whether the title race was over.

“I can’t see any way back now. I know a few of the Prestatyn players and I congratulated them.

“I don’t believe that we won’t have a strong end to the season, but I can’t see them dropping the points needed for us to catch them.”

McGuinness’ men must now concentrate in securing second place, which could still earn promotion ahead of the domestic licence decisions.

If Flint were to finish second spot it would secure back-to-back runners up places after Airbus won the title last term.

“It’s a similar scenario to last season,” said McGuinness. “We were up against it straight away because Prestatyn are like Airbus were last season.

“Prestatyn have that know-how to win games after signing some Cymru Premier players. Airbus had a squad packed with Cymru Premier players as well.

“But it’s up to us to secure second spot now with Colwyn Bay behind us.”

Defeat was tough for McGuinness and Flint to take, especially after more than matching their hosts during a hard fought 90 minutes.

“I don’t think it went for us, but we didn’t help ourselves in the second-half,” said McGuinness. “It took us 20 minutes to get going after the break and by that time they had scored a very good goal.

“I think we thought we’d done enough in the first-half by playing into a strong wind and creating chances.

“Nathan Brown has gone through one-on-one and forced their goalkeeper into a save, while Richie Foulkes has had a goal ruled out for offside, which I don’t think was after watching it back.

“If we’d gone 1-0 up with the wind in the second-half it would have been a completely different game, although out of nowhere the wind dropped until the last two minutes after half-time.

“Prestatyn only had two shots on target, which is very few for a side who score so many goals, but they’ve scored one and held on.

“Even in the second-half we’ve had one cleared off the line and we’ve come within inches of scoring with Foulkes just missing a cross.”

Buckley Town slipped into the relegation zone after Llangefni secured a crucial 2-1 win at Llandudno.

Iwan Jones and Steven Jones put Llangefni two goals up at the interval, and although Jacob Farleigh set up a tense finish, Chris Roberts’ men held firm.

The win was a welcome boost to Llangefni, now a place and a point above Buckley.

Jake Jones tweeted: “Get in!!!!!”, while team-mate Steffan Jones wrote: “What a result!!”