Cardea went in to the game with a slightly changed and depleted squad and lined up with Ross Panton (GK), Travis Brown (RB), Stuart Yaxley (CB), Tom Rimes (CB), Sam Cope (LB), Michael Williams (CM), Dan Baldwin (CM), John Reddell (CM) , Antonio Esposito (RW), Ash Baldwin (LW), Thomas Klinkovics (ST) (14231) and a bench consisting of Jake Falco and reserves Stuart Lee and Andrew James.

Cardea got off to a fantastic start and were one up within 13 minutes, Thomas Klinkovic scoring after rounding the goalkeeper. There were calls of offside from the opposition but to no avail. 0-1.

The rest of the first half consisted of Cardea moving the ball around nicely but without enough creativity in the final third, struggling to create any real chances.

HT: Warboys Town 0-1 Cardea FC

At half time, Cardea management called for more of the same however almost immediately after Vinny (The Ref) blew his whistle to start the second half, the rain came flooding in. Almost completely blocking the vision of the players on the pitch. For once, the management and “Fans” were sheltered by the dug outs and the stand and nobody was happier than Stuart Lee to find out it was Andrew James’ turn to run the line next.

The weather led to a mad 15 minutes with plenty of action at either end.

The hosts dealt with the situation much better than Cardea and equalised in the 49th minute. 1-1.

Cardea managed to re-take the lead 3 minutes later through another Thomas Klinkovic goal, this time taking advantage of a keeper error after an Esposito through ball. 1-2.

Once again, the hosts responded with an equaliser before taking the lead through some good work in the channel and a ball across goal which was well finished from close range. 3-2.

It has been at this stage in games that Cardea have struggled recently, especially in poor conditions and when needing to battle and grind out performances, but on this occasion, going a goal down seemed to push Cardea into the next gear and goals in quick succession from Antonio Esposito (assisted by Dan Baldwin) and Thomas Klinkovics (for his hat-trick, assisted by Ash Baldwin) effectively killed off the opposition. 3-4.

The last 20 minutes saw the weather and the game, calm down.

Thomas Klinkovics did manage to add to the scoring with his fourth of the game in the final minutes with a tap in from close range after a mistake by the opposition defender. 3-5.

There was just enough time for the now freezing cold Andrew James to make a cameo appearance for the first team and it wasn’t long before his first touch meant he had to win the ball in an aggressive tackle in order to remain in control.

FT: Warboys Town 3-5 Cardea FC

After the game manager Matthew Robinson said “Finally a performance to be proud of from the lads, it wasn’t the prettiest of games, nor were we at our best but one thing we did do was get stuck in and battle which is something we have struggled with at times this season. MOTM has to go to Thomas Klinkovic but there were a number of performances I was pleased with today.

"I would also like to say a huge thanks to the two lads stepping up from the reserves today, I know it wasn’t ideal and I don’t like to take them unless I really need to but they showed their team ethic today and it does mean a lot."

Next week, the first team are at home against Eunice Huntingdon where only a last minute winner was enough to separate the sides last time out.