Chepstow Town Under 14s manager Jason Thorne hailed his new side's performance against last season's league and cup winners Garden City as "fantastic" despite their 2-0 defeat. With a new line up in defence, the new Chepstow Town keeper Casey Arnott had an outstanding debut and rightly walked away with the man of the match award in his first game for the club. Chepstow captain Harry Martyn was a menace all afternoon for the home side, and led from the front with some great skill and vision. Fellow new recruit Connor Lewis had a great first half, sadly cut short with an injury. Josh 'Bazza' Barrett was on the wrong end of some harsh challenges that saw an early exit from the field, leaving Chepstow short in numbers of experienced midfield playmakers. Harry Thorne made some fantastic runs down the channels and had the beating of the City back line for pace every time. Thorne was involved with an accidental collision with the Garden City keeper, resulting in the Chepstow forward receiving a nasty blow to the head. Ben Thomas continued to battle for possession with some great defence splitting passes. Chepstow defence line of George McCarron, Ellis Roberts, Louis Bibby, James Maris-King and Oliver Hayes held the onslaught of pressure for the first half, with the half-time score line a respectable 2-0. Injuries to key players in the second half forced some unwanted changes to the Chepstow line up with Bibby, Lewis and Barrett all having to leave the field of play. Returning Chepstow Town player Joe Hopkins made some neat passing link ups with Oliver Hayes and Charlie Price in the second half leaving the away side flat footed. Although the home side lost this challenging encounter, every Chepstow Town player walked off the field knowing that they played their hearts out and gave everything they had for the whole game.