STACEY MAKES HISTORY AS CARDEA EASE PAST EUNICE

After the Cardea first team had come across the “physical” style of play from the Eunice first team, it was the reserves turn from both sides to face off. Hopefully in a game which featured more football, and less of what Mick Foley would call extreme physicality.

The build up to the game was to be an eventful one, as it was unsure if Assistant Manager Lee Jacobs would be there in time for kick off, in order to don the gloves in goal. Unfortunately, this was not the case, forcing Cardea’s own community service evidence, Andrew James between the sticks. As the defender is used to defending his own box (granted from rats rather than strikers), he was the natural choice.

Thankfully, the opening stages displayed some good football from Cardea, moving the ball around and not allowing Huntingdon a foothold in the game. Most of their involvement coming from their management team and linesman, who’s arm appeared to be spring activated when the offside appeals came from his defenders.

However, there was no debating the legitimacy of first goal. After the ball was bouncing around in midfield, It was flicked into the right channel by the Eunice centre midfielder. Mitchell Tomkin latched onto the loose ball and drove into the box, striding past the shaven headed AND ponytailed centre back (yes, one man had combined both of these hairstyles into one magnificent car crash of a barnet), and fired the ball high into the net, beating the keeper for power on the strike.

Cardea continued their dominance on the pitch, with Kev Webster, standing in for the absent Dave Hardingham on the side line trying to win the war of words off the pitch. A combination of both of these efforts were leading to the Huntingdon side becoming more and more frustrated throughout the first half.

This eventually told in the 43rd minute when Wayne Ward made a tackle in the centre of the pitch, which was initially greeted with a scream from the Huntingdon central midfielder (who’s haircut wasn’t as spectacular as his centre back, but still, not one to post on Instagram #shortbackandsides #mohawk #3poundtrim). Ward laughed the scream off, which did not impress the David Beckham 2002 wannabe, who preceded to aim a grim spit in Ward’s direction. Not pleasant at all, and not intelligent at all, considering the referee was less than 6 feet away from him. Without hesitation the ref showed Goldenballs the red card, and Eunice were down to 10.

It took Cardea about 90 seconds to make their advantage count, Eddy Underhill picked the ball up from Kieren Brown and played the ball across to Adam Stacey. Stacey had previously scored for every single Cardea side… apart from the Saturday Reserves (and the ladies side, barring a Bruce Jenner style transformation he will never achieve this… but you never know). The player who is famous for being “too far out to score” when presented with a penalty opportunity, took his shot early from about 20 yards out. Which surprised everyone, none more so than the Eunice goalkeeper, who could only watch the ball roll into the far corner.
Stacey is now the only player to score for every Cardea side, which is a record the veteran striker should be proud of.

With the instructions from the Cardea management team to keep the performance levels high, and not to get complacent with the man advantage. Eunice pulled a goal back less than 2 minutes into the second half. A ball over the top led to confusion between Andrew James and Aaron Guntrip, when James seemed stuck to his goal line, the Huntingdon striker stole in and made it 2-1. This was really the only problems that Eunice caused Cardea, and it seemed a question of how many, rather than whether Cardea would hold on.

Cardea did make it 3-1 on 64 minutes, with a MASSIVE assist from the Huntingdon keeper, who had been substituted on at half time. Stacey controlled the ball on the left corner of the box and passed inside to Stuart Lee (who for the record couldn’t hit a barn door at training on Wednesday), who unleashed a gentle drifting effort towards the keeper’s hands. Who somehow was unable to bring the ball into his hands, and spilled it over the line into the corner of the net.

Cardea then continued to dominate and turn the screw on Eunice, however despite creating multiple chances, they were not able to increase their lead.

They were however able to come up with a new nickname for the new foreign import Peter Green. As the ball was rolling to Aaron “Tinder” Guntrip, he suffered what can only be described as a Brain Fart and shouted “SCOTLAND” when connecting with the ball. As Green hails from the country where every meal imaginable is deep fried and who’s national anthem is about a flower. It seemed an appropriate nickname.

The best of the chances falling to Chelsea Ultra and Arjen Robben enthusiast Daniel Robinson. He controlled the ball on the right side, cutting inside onto his favoured left foot, just as his idol has made a career out of doing. He wound up, the ball dead, almost a free kick with no wall (and clearly not much of a goalkeeper), he shaped the ball towards the far corner of the net. Unfortunately, the only corner he found was that of a window, owned by Cardea central defender Peter Green, who happened to live about half a mile from the Eunice home ground.

Green not only gained a new nickname and a bill for a new bedroom window during this game, but also claimed the Man of the Match award, thoroughly deserved after a very solid performance from the foreign import.

Assistant Manager Lee Jacobs was upbeat after the performance: “Lads a really good performance against what potentially could have been a bit of a banana skin today. They tried to get under your skin and you all kept you head. Defensively really solid as well other than one breakdown in communication which is a huge improvement, especially with a back 4 that’s never played together before.

"Created a lot of chances too, which again is a massive positive, just need to make them count and be more clinical, which will come with time. Let’s move on to the next round and see how far we can go!”

Cardea Reserves will travel to Stilton Reserves in the next round of the Hunts Cup. In the more immediate future the Ressies travel to Leverington Sports on Saturday to play their "A" team.