TWO goals inside the first five minutes gave Mathern a great start in their Gwent County League Division 2 match against New Inn on Saturday (28th March).

The visitors never really recovered after Ieuan Diyaolu gave Mathern the lead, racing onto a through pass from Alex Jarman before firing past the onrushing keeper.

Within minutes, Mathern doubled their lead through Luke Farley who drove home a free-kick from out on Mathern's left wing.

New Inn did attempt to regroup but already the cracks in their defence – and their morale – were starting to show, and Mathern dominated the first half, although they were unable to increase their lead.

Diyaolu thought he had done so with a low shot on 35 minutes but the effort was ruled out for a narrow offside decision.

Mathern's speedy wingers Connor Hayden and the irrepressible Jarman stretched the New Inn defence allowing midfielders Rory Prettyjohns and Farley to support frontman Diyaolu.

Visiting keeper Chris Neath was by far the busiest of the two keepers, getting down sharply to smother a shot from Diyaolu and tipping another effort by Hayden over the bar.

At the other end, Mathern's back four were in command.

Only once did the home side's

keeper Jason Johnstone need to come out as a visiting forward broke clear, the keeper parrying his shot for a throw-in.

Generally, the central defenders – Gary Baker and Andy Skuse – were dominant in the air against taller forwards while Shane Murphy and Adam Morrissey kept New Inn's wingers fairly quiet throughout.

The second half was a little more even until Jarman made victory secure tapping in at the far post after a fine run by Hayden on the left.

Minutes later, Jarman made it 4-0, after he and Diyaolu broke clear, which heralded some changes in line-up.

With Mathern looking for a fifth goal, New Inn took advantage to score a late consolation but despite the loss of a clean sheet, manager Dean Thomas was happy with the team's performance.

"We played well today," he said. "There were no weaknesses in our game and the on-field decision-making is improving week on week.

"New Inn were one place below us coming into the game and to beat them 4-1 is very satisfying.

"I was most pleased with the way we started. We were straight out of the blocks and the two early goals set the tone for the rest of the game.

"The result puts us seventh in the table, but we need to perform like that consistently, if we are going to progress any further."