PENARTH Town's first team played their first game of the new season last Saturday taking on Island Marine in the Vale Premiership.

All the players and coaches had worked extremely hard in pre-season so were really hoping for a good start.

It took a while for both teams to settle but it was not long before Penarth were moving the ball well and starting to control the key midfield area through Ryan Williams and Mark Lane. This in turn gave Josh Stephens and Nick Thomas on the flanks good service and options to attack from out wide. One such ball from Williams through the centre split the visitors defence and put Stephens clean through. He remained composed, shrugged off the last tackle and finished beautifully through the Marine's keepers legs. 1-0 to the home team and their dominance continued with Paul Beedell and Morgan Hayman up front both also coming close.

Penarth maintained the lead until the break after which the visitors probably had their best spell. They pushed forward but the Town's back four of Simon Fairhurst, Luke Horwood, Ellis Kemp and Rhys Fford soaked up the pressure. They were helped by their keeper Jordan Birchall who was called into action on a couple of occasions to make excellent and brave saves and keep Penarth in front.

After that Penarth started to get on top again and with Sam Nilsen replacing Kemp the home side got their rhythm back winning a corner. It was swung in beautifully by Stephens and as the ball dropped and fell loose, Lane thumped it in hard and low for Town's second.

Penarth never really looked troubled from then on and nearly had more from long range efforts form Fford and Horwood. Will Adesanya was introduced to provide fresh legs and to help close out the game until the final whistle.

So a very satisfying start to the new season for Penarth Town, their next game is away to Cowbridge next Saturday.