NIALL MCGUINNESS declared Flint Town United’s 10-0 thumping by The New Saints as “embarrassing”.

The game was settled as a contest by half-time as Greg Draper scored a brace either side of a Jon Routledge effort, but there was no sign of what was to unfold in the second period as Saints ran riot.

Draper, pictured above, added a second-half hat-trick to his total to overtake Michael Wilde as Saints’ top scorer, with Routledge found the net once more and Ryan Harrington, Louis Robles and Kwame Boateng completed the rout.

McGuinness, below, was in charge of Rhyl back in 2016 when they were beaten 10-0 by Saints, and the Flint boss said: “It’s difficult. Extremely tough to take.

“It’s happened before and I didn’t think it would happen again, but it has.”

McGuinness is four years wiser and will deal with the setback better than when it happened to him at Rhyl.

He continued: “I was a lot younger and you start to doubt yourself. I don’t doubt myself one bit now.”

Up until Draper’s successful - yet debatable - penalty on 18 minutes, Flint were proving more than a match for Scott Ruscoe’s men.

“For the first 20 minutes we looked good and what we’d talked about was working,” said McGuinness. “We weren’t able to train ahead of the game after playing on Wednesday, but we started strongly.

“We worked on stopping them but also trying to cause them problems, because we didn’t want to just sit in for 90 minutes.

“But after a good start we made a couple of basic errors - leaving pockets of space for them to exploit - and then we were losing 2-0.

“At half-time they’d had four or five chances and scored three.”

While Flint put up a fight in the first period, it was a different story in the second as Saints’ flexed their muscles.

“There are no excuses for the second-half performance,” said McGuinness. “Five or six of the team rolled their sleeves up, but the rest didn’t and that’s something I don’t like to see.

“Too many gave up once we knew we weren’t going to win, but that’s not what you do as a player. You have to take responsibility.

“I’m not just blaming the players either, I have to take responsibility for an embarrassing result.”

Experienced goalkeeper John Danby was forced off with a groin problem after 23 minutes, while Nathan Craig was only fit enough for a place on the bench and Alex Titchiner is sidelined with a knee injury.

Aaron Jones replaced Danby in goal, and although he shipped nine goals, the youngster earned the praise of McGuinness.

“He was excellent,” said the Flint boss. “It was his Cymru Premier debut and he pulled off four or five top saves.”

The game also saw Les Davies make his Flint debut, the experienced frontman playing the whole 90 minutes.

“Les showed that he’s a proper man,” added McGuinness, whose side host Bala Town on Tuesday night.

“He could have scored and he was an outlet for us.”

Draper, who now has 156 goals for TNS, tweeted his delight at breaking Wilde’s record, writing: “Finally got there!! Thank you to everyone for the messages, will try and get back to you all. Also a BIG thank you to all my beautiful team-mates who have helped over the last 9 years, too many to mention. Next stop... 200.”

Next up for Saints is a home clash with Newtown on Tuesday, the Robins heading to Park Hall having lost 2-1 to Penybont.

Nick Rushton gave Newtown a lead, but Mael Davies and Sam Snaith turned the contest around for the home side.

Bala head to Flint on Tuesday night having been beaten 2-1 by Haverfordwest County, who saw Jack Wilson scored a 93rd minute winner after Daniel Williams had cancelled out Chris Venables’ penalty.