DEPLETED CARDEA DIG DEEP TO BEAT AFC BRETTON

After some late drop outs and an injury hit week Cardea lined up with Anton Fountain in goal. Dale Moore played right back with Michael Williams and Tom Rimes as centre backs. New signing Ashley Simons started as left back.

The midfield four was made up of Daniel Robinson, Shane Cooke, Gav Earl and Andrew James. Kynan Bereznyckyj and Adam Simons started up front.

On the bench were Aaron Yeoman, who hadn't expected to play due to injury, and joint manager Craig Robinson.

The conditions at Bretton were atrocious and a section of the pitch was heavily water logged.

Cardea attacked the water logged end in the first half and struggled to create any chances. In fact it was Fountain in the Cardea goal who was the busier keeper making two good saves.

The Cardea injury list grew even further after 15 minutes when Rimes went into a 50/50 challenge and re-injured his ankle. Yeoman came onto the pitch in midfield with James dropping back to right back and Moore shifting over to centre back.

At half time the formation was changed to a 4-5-1 with Simons up front on is own. The first 15 minutes of the second half was quiet for both teams with the rainy conditions and the water logged part of the pitch causing problems for everyone.

Robinson changed the formation and returned to two up top with Earl moving forward and it was a decision that paid off emphatically.

Cardea finally got the breakthrough in the 65th minute. Yeoman showed good footwork on the edge of the area and played the ball through to Earl and he made no mistake in tapping the ball past the goalkeeper.

Cardea almost added a second straight away. A free kick from Williams on the half way line was flicked on by Earl but, with Simons waiting to tuck the ball away, the defender cleared the ball for a corner.

The lead was doubled with 15 minutes to go and it was a great goal. A fantastic flick from Yeoman found Cooke in the area and he powered home from a tight angle.

The points were made safe after 85 minutes and it was all down to Earl. The attacker pressurised the Bretton right back, stole the ball from him and ran to the byline. With Simons the only target in the area Earl played the ball across the 6 yard box but before Simons could tap home the Bretton defender bundled the ball into his own net.

The referee brought the game to a close and despite the awful conditions and injury hit squad Cardea took all three points and moved joint top of PSMFL Division 2 with Farcet and Premiair.

After the game manager Kev Webster said: "We had a lot of factors going against us this morning, with a few players unable to make it for various reasons. The weather and the pitch was our main opponent and that provided us with a tough test. We battled well, tried to play football but the puddles was beating our style of football.

"AFC had improved but the pitch was the leveller, second half we battled well and scored a vital goal which ensured there was only going to be one winner. I need to add special mentions to Yeoman who came on while injured and changed the game with his two assists, Gav for his goal and determination to win the ball for the 3rd. Shane was box to box all game and his effort and work rate was outstanding.

"My man of the match was Dale, commanded the back line well, made a key block at 1-0 and made loads of blocks throughout the game. Well done today boys that was a hard test but another that we have passed well and 3 points in the bag."

Next week is another test of Cardea's title credentials as they face AFC Allbright at Bushfield.