Cardea FC (5-3-2): James Wilson; Travis Brown, Dan Baldwin, Tom Rimes, Michael Williams, Sam Cope; John Reddell, John Danskin, Mark Rayment; Thomas Klinkovics, Martin Holyoak.
Subs: Mike Dandrilli, Kieran Hart, Kieron McKenna, Nathan Ginty.

Cardea looked to have signed a new centre back but on closer inspection it was a clean shaven Dan Baldwin, fresh from his goalscoring achievement last week he was as good as his word and shaved his beard and head and was almost unrecognisable.

Onto the game and Stamford almost made an early breakthrough when their striker pounced on a defensive error but Wilson in the Cardea goal stood tall and made a good one on one save.

Cardea took the lead after 18 minutes, Reddell passed to Klinkovics 35 yards from the goal. September’s player of the month dribbled past the Bels defence and beat the keeper with a shot into the bottom corner.

The away team settled into the match and almost added a second, a deep corner was headed back towards the goal by Williams but Klinkovics couldn’t position himself to turn it in and the ball was cleared.

Just after the half hour Stamford equalised with a controversial goal. The ball was played behind the Cardea defence to the Bels forward who beat the oncoming Wilson to the ball and his pass into the box was converted at the back post by a player who looked to be in an offside position. The linesman didn’t give it and the teams went in level at the break.

HT: Stamford Belvedere 1-1 Cardea FC

Cardea made two changes at half time bringing on Dandrilli and Hart to give the Cardea attack a different look.

Hart’s direct running led to what would be the match winner. The forward ran down the left wing and crossed in for Klinkovics to bundle the ball into the net despite the best efforts of the Stamford defenders.

Moments later Cardea had the chance to extend their lead from the penalty spot after Rayment was fouled in the area. Left back Sam Cope stepped up and struck the ball well but unfortunately the ball whistled just wide of the post and the score remained at 2-1.

For the remainder of the game Stamford flooded forward and threw everything at the Cardea goal but the defence stood firm and thwarted every opportunity Stamford created.

Dandrilli had a chance to add to the scoreline on the counter after Klinkovics squared a ball to him but the striker hit his effort just over the bar.

FT: Stamford Belvedere 1-2 Cardea FC

The win takes Cardea’s points total to 19 from 10 games represented a great return for the team’s first season at this level.

After the game manager Matt Robinson said: "Another dogged display today where we weren’t at our best but we dug in and got the 3 points. The shape we started with gave us a good platform to build on and the lads performed excellently.

"MOTM was Mark Rayment. I thought Mark gave us an excellent balance in the midfield and worked his socks off to keep us in the game. To play with the right mentality and not get carried away in tough games at such a young age is something that is very rare to find. Well done!"

Cardea are on the road again next week with a trip to Sutton Bridge.