STRONG DEFENDS HUNT

RHYL player manager Greg Strong has defended striker Lee Hunt who was sent off for the umpteenth time in his Lilywhites career on Saturday.
Hunt quit the Lilies at the end of the 2007/08 season in protest at what he considered the harsh treatment he received from Welsh Premier referees.
But the 28-year-old striker rejoined Rhyl at the start of the current campaign and had been in outstanding form before Saturday's red card at Latham Park, which rules him out for three matches against Airbus (tonight), Porthmadog and Llanfairpwll.
Hunt lunged in high on Newtown midfielder Andrew Williams in the second half and match official Brian James had no hesitation in giving him his marching orders.
"From where I was at the time I thought the decision looked harsh," said Strong.
"Both lads went in for the tackle 100% and there was no malice on Lee's part.
"I spoke to the referee afterwards and asked if he could look at the incident again and he agreed to do so along with two assessors, but they've come back and said the decision was correct.
"I'm not too happy about it as when one of your players gets a three-match ban because of a mistake it's hard to take."
At least Strong could console himself with another victory which keeps the Lilies top of the Welsh Premier - but it was a close run thing.
After taking an early 2-0 lead, Rhyl were pegged back to 2-2, then were reduced to 10 men and needed two late goals to seal the points.
"For the first 20 minutes we were excellent, but after that we weren't clinical enough in front of goal - we should have gone 4 or 5-0 up," said the player boss.
"If you give a team a chance it only takes a mistake - like ours with the penalty - and you're on the back foot.
"Credit to Newtown, they fought back well, but when we went down to 10 men I decided to change the system.
"I didn't want to go for the draw, we wanted the win, so all credit to my players who proved once again they can adapt."