Mardy Off To Winning Start

After losing a lead in added time last week, Mardy secured a well deserved three points on Saturday with a late goal of their own in a 2-1 win over Llanhilleth. Despite the absence of a number of players the team were boosted by the return to the Club from Abergavenny Town of Ben Jones and Jamie 'Totti' Laurent with both playing significant roles in their victory.

The visitors had also been boosted by some new signings but it was Mardy who gained the upper hand almost immediately and forced a flurry of early corners before Laurent forced visiting keeper Dan Griffiths into a full length save with a shot from distance. The pressure continued and a Charlie Morris cross was headed just wide by Nathan Price before Jones almost celebrated his return after ten minutes with a powerful shot that rebounded from the crossbar and away to safety with Griffiths beaten. Barely a minute later there was another escape for the visitors when an Owen Vaughan effort hit the post before being cleared. Both new signings were prominent with Laurent again forcing a save from Griffiths before Jones had a shot tipped over. Mardy then went even closer from the subsequent corner when a goalbound Matt Wham header was cleared off the line before the deadlock was finally broken after thirty six minutes. There didn't appear to be too much danger when Laurent picked up the ball twenty five yards from goal but, with virtually no backlift, he bent a shot with the outside of his right foot into the top corner of the net giving Griffiths no chance. With the interval approaching, Llanhilleth saw their first shot of the game pushed away by home keeper Ben Shooter to keep the score at 1-0. The first 45 minutes had seen some lovely football from Mardy although the three points should already have been in the bag such was their first half dominance.

The second half started with Laurent again trying his luck from 25 yards before Mardy were denied by a controversial incident five minutes after the break when Price was through on goal but was denied by a hand ball by Griffiths outside the area. The decision was a free kick and a yellow card being shown although the offence appeared to have denied a clear goal scoring opportunity. Laurent was living up to his Totti nickname with another shot that was tipped over and the pattern of play remained unchanged but, credit to the visitors, their heads never dropped and they kept battling which meant that there was always a nagging worry about the home team not having increased their slender lead. Those fears were justified when after eighty one minutes a shot by Philip Blackmore crept past the unsighted Shooter to spark some justifiably wild celebrations from the visitors. A minute later, they had the ball in the net again but fortunately, the 'goal' was disallowed for offside. A point would have been a meagre return for the home team's dominance but it was turned into three with the 90 minutes up thanks to a very well worked goal started by right back Luke Morgan who has been something of a breakthrough player on the evidence of the season so far. Morgan had picked up the ball in defence and played it to Kyron Hughes in midfield who laid it off to Price. The Mardy skipper returned the compliment with a ball into the right side of the area where Hughes had continued his run and did well to reach it and control the ball on the rock hard surface before laying it off across goal for Price to net a deserved winner and put the team in good spirits for home games this Saturday (16th) against Machen and on Wednesday evening (20th) against Panteg.

The reserve team also returned to friendly action in midweek away to Farfield Development and came away with a 6-5 win thanks to goals from Chris Price, Oli Shooter, Kyron Hughes, Robert Didcote, JayJay Simpson, and Mark Hughes.