Flint Town United may sound like a bit of a cumbersome name, but there is a lot of history that's gone into it. Once there were three teams in
Flint, in the most north easterly corner of Wales. Flint FC, Flint Athletic and Flint UAC (the IUAC standing for the rather catchy United Alkali Company). Now, that's a lot of Flint. FC were the oldest, formed in 1986, and it wasn't long before they merged with UAC in 1905. Around this time the newly mingled club became known as The Silkmen, after the textiles industries that were common in the area at the time.
Then, at the cessation of hostilities in Word War II, they finally merged with Athletic to become Flint Town United. They currently play in the
Cymru Alliance - the second level of the Welsh game, which they won at the first time of asking. But not so long ago in 1992 they were among the founder members of the
League of Wales, and spent six season there before dropping back to their current level. They've also got a decent track record in the Welsh Cup - losing to Wrexham in the final in 1925, and finally going one step further in 1954 when they beat Chester City 2-0 at The Racecourse Ground, having beaten the then top-flight Cardiff City along the way.
Perhaps their most famous old boy is
Barry Horne, the much travelled former captain of the Welsh national side, who put in stints at Wrexham, Portsmouth, Southampton, Sheffield Wednesday and loads more - even scoring one of the vital goals that saved Everton from an unprescedented relegation in 1994. But getting back to Flint, they currently play their games at the purpose-built Cae-y-Castell stadium, after their historic Hollywell Road ground got turned into a shopping park. Last season saw them finish runners up in the Allience, so let's see if they can go one better and make their way back to the top flight next term.
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