CARDEA CRASH TO FIRST LEAGUE DEFEAT

Cardea FC (4-3-3): Gav Sampson; Anthony Kiernan, Stuart Yaxley (c), Michael Williams, Kynan Bereznyckyj; Shane Cooke, Gav Earl, Aaron Yeoman; Alex Goymour, Rob Ames, Luke Penman. Subs: Kieron McKenna, Ryan Moore.

The match was played on the 3G at a very windy Bushfield.

Cardea made the worst possible start to the game and were behind inside 46 seconds. The Premiair right winger showed great pace to get past the Cardea defenders and his cut back was turned in by the striker.

Both teams created a couple of half chances before Cardea drew level with a goal out of nothing. Earl did brilliantly to keep the ball in on the left wing and Ames ran onto the pass and flicked over the keeper from the angle of the penalty box for a great finish.

Cardea were only level for a minute before Premiair retook the lead and it was a goal that could have been avoided. A short back pass was pounced on by the striker and he beat Sampson and Kiernan on the line for his second of the day.

After half time Yeoman sent a free kick over the bar as Cardea showed a slight improvement from the first half.

However Premiair scored a 3rd on the hour mark to seal the 3 points. Premair counter attacked quickly and midfielder Ryan Alban tapped in at the near post.

Cardea keeper Sampson pulled off a string of good saves in the second half to keep the score at 3-1 as Cardea struggled to convert chances.

The game finished at 3-1 ending Cardea's 100% start to the season.

After the game manager Craig Robinson said: "Not good enough from the very start, closing down was poor, tempo was non existent, creativity was awful, decision making with the ball not good enough. Very poor day for everyone except Gav in goal. Could have easily been 6 or 7 but for Gav.

"Credit to Premiair they were very good today and fully deserved the win. We have to be better in next weeks game. MOTM was Gav Sampson, 5/6 top quality saves in the second half and kicking was faultless throughout.

"Cup game next week, everyone needs to be at Bretton bright and early to put the nets up. No excuses!"

Kev Webster added: "I'm not happy today, we have so much quality across the pitch and the only player playing to that level today was Gav. When the keeper gets man of the match it should show you how poor we was.

"I don't want to dwell on the negatives but we need to improve because we are more then capable of winning this league. Let's bounce back, get to the next round of the cup and win out next league game."

Next up for Cardea is Hunts Cup action with a quarter final against Catworth at Bretton.