Despite a howling gale and torrential rain almost throughout their first friendly game, both teams served up some great entertainment all afternoon.
Mardy began the game with the benefit of the wind behind them but the strength of it made measured passing and even taking set pieces difficult. This meant that despite having the majority of territory, Mardy were finding it difficult to get anything on target until they were awarded a penalty on the 15 minute mark. Captain Matt Wham stepped up and struck the ball well enough but visiting keeper Tom Naylor dived full length to make an excellent save and push the ball around the post for an unproductive corner. However, only three minutes later, a trip in the area meant that another penalty was awarded and, this time, new signing Aaron Norman stepped up to give Naylor no chance with a well placed shot. The lead was increased shortly afterwards when Norman put James Cope through and despite beating Naylor, the heavy conditions slowed the ball enough for a defender to get back and clear the ball off the line. Fortunately, the lively Dan Wait had followed up and scored from close range. Nevertheless, Gilwern were far from out of it and only an excellent last ditch tackle by Ellis French stopped a Gilwern attacker from getting clean through on goal and the visitors skied another good chance shortly after. A third goal for Mardy came just after the half hour mark when Jamie Laurent struck a superb free kick from 25 yards around a defensive wall and into the corner of the net.
The wind abated slightly at half time but was still strong and Gilwern started the half looking determined to use it to good effect with a shot that whistled just wide. This was only a temporary reprieve for Mardy though and four minutes after the restart, a well taken corner by Jordan Jones beat everybody to curl directly into the top corner of the net. Only four minutes later, Mardy went from comfortably placed to fighting to hold onto their lead when a steepling cross from Adam Meredith sailed into the net to cut the deficit to one. The visitors were now having the majority of the ball and forced a succession of corners to put Mardy under some consistent pressure which finally resulted in an equalising goal thanks to a towering header from Ali Paton.
The visitors looked odds on to get a winner at this stage but Mardy regained their composure and started to play some good football on the break, resulting in Cope putting Norman through to place the ball past Naylor and regain the lead with five minutes to go. The home side then held on relatively comfortably until the final whistle but both teams can be pleased with their first outings of the season after a game which despite being a 'friendly' was nevertheless competitive throughout.