Cardea battle to 2nd victory

Cardea made it 2 wins on the bounce in 2-1 win over Isleham.

Cardea ladies looked to take control of the match early by dominating the midfield area and pressing Islehams back line high up the pitch! This tactic paid off in the 10th minute from a set piece! Cardea had made the most of some good play down the right-hand side which saw Isleham bundle the ball clear for a corner! Nicola Anderson sent a teasing cross in to the box and Annie's flick on at the near post was enough to beat Islehams keeper for Courtney Coles could slot home for her 5th in 2 games!
4 minutes later saw Cardea at it again! Some good play down the right hand side of the pitch saw Natalia break through to only see her effort well saved for a corner! Nicola Anderson sent in another great cross which found her CMP Laura Rudd, who managed to get enough of a flick on the ball to find Anne Kanga who calmly ran the ball home to make it 2-0!
The next 30+ minutes saw both teams trying to break each other down as Isleham tried to work their way back into the game which allowed little pockets of space to appear for Cardea to exploit! Unfortunately decent chances from Skipper Rudd, Jess, Courtney and Annie all went begging and so did the chance to kill the game off early!

Isleham capitalised on these missed chances in the 40th minute! After some decent attacking play it was a missed place pass from Cardea that allowed Isleham back in to the game! Cardea had tried to play out from the back into midfield but found the path blocked, Isleham played a quick through ball for the striker to go 1 on 1 with Carlie Rudd, the striker come out on top on this occasion!

Half-time: 2-1

The 2nd half was a half of missed opportunities as both teams looked to get control of the game.

In the 50th minute, Cardea made their first change of the game as Janette Jarvis came off for Natalie Upson who probably wished she had stayed in Liverpool as Isleham controlled the 2nd half.

Thankfully for Cardea, Isleham could only find a confident and defiant Carlie Rudd in goal! The Cardea number 1 had broken her wrist during the off-season but looked to be back in form as she calmly collected cross after cross and also proved to come out on top in a lot of 1 v 1's!

On the hour mark Kev Webster, standing in as coach so Dan Gibbs could fulfil his linesman duties, made the second sub of the game to bring on Naomi Hall in place of Natalia Kucinska on the right wing! Natalia re-entered the field of play 15 minutes later in place of Courtney Coles!

With full time fast approaching and Isleham seemingly getting closer to finding an equaliser, Dan Gibbs took back his coaching role in an attempt to guide the team home and this, along with some gritty determination from the team, was enough to see the team across the line.

Full-time 2-1

Daniel Gibbs said after the game: we really had to dig deep today for that result! Especially in the 2nd half! To take the lead early the way we did was very good but it's a shame we could capitalise on it more!

Player of the match went to team captain Laura Rudd who literally battled for every inch of ground to ensure her team won!

Next week see Cardea take on Swavesey Spartans at Middletons Road!