RHYL assistant coach Richard Williams-Cooke said his squad must “stick together as a group” after they fell to a 2-0 home loss to Flint Town United.

Former player Mark Cadwallader put his old side to the sword with a brace either side of half-time to extend the Lilies’ recent poor run of results and give ex-manager Niall McGuinness a victory on his old stomping ground.

Things do not get any easier for the Lilywhites this weekend as they prepare to welcome Huws Gray Alliance leaders Airbus Broughton to the Belle Vue Stadium (2.30pm).

Williams-Cooke, said: “I thought we started well to be fair, we changed the shape a bit and the lads took it on board but Mark has scored an absolute worldy which came from our error as we pressed the ball in the wrong area.

“The reaction was pretty poor until the end of the half but I didn’t think there was a lot between the two sides at the break.

“We came out fairly bright and won a few more second balls which we asked for at half-time, but Flint are a good side who are well organised and once they got the second goal I think the reaction from a few of the players was very disappointing and not what we need.

“I have only heard good things about Airbus and we have had a good chat for 15 minutes with the players after the game about needing to be better. We are on a bad run but it was only a couple of weeks ago we were talking about two of the best performances in recent memory and everyone needs to dig in at a time like this, stick together and work hard to turn things around.”

An even opening to the game saw both sides hit the crossbar in the opening exchanges, before Cadwallader produced a ferocious effort that found its way into the top corner to give the Silkmen the lead midway through the half.

After the break saw Kristian Perce, Barry Torrence and James Murphy all go close to levelling matters, and they were made to pay for on 58 minutes when Cadwallader despatched his second of the evening.

Damian Ketley saw red for the visitors after a second booking for simulation, and Pierce missed a penalty in the closing stages by Aaron Jones to compound the hosts’ misery.