Four promotions in four seasons for Cardea FC and Saturday’s top-flight fixtures

The rise and rise of Cardea FC is one cracking Peterborough League story.
By Alan Swann
Published 11th Sep 2020, 11:00 BST
Cardea, before their win over Leverington Sports, (back) Junior Jones, Kieran Hart, Daryn Whiteman, Tom Rimes, James Wilson, Michael Williams, John Reddell, Martyn Fox, Nathan Ginty and Matthew Robinson, front Mike Dandrilli, Ash Baldwin, Dan Baldwin, Thomas Klinkovics, Dan Grieves, Sam Cope, Kyle Ginns and Mark Rayment.Cardea, before their win over Leverington Sports, (back) Junior Jones, Kieran Hart, Daryn Whiteman, Tom Rimes, James Wilson, Michael Williams, John Reddell, Martyn Fox, Nathan Ginty and Matthew Robinson, front Mike Dandrilli, Ash Baldwin, Dan Baldwin, Thomas Klinkovics, Dan Grieves, Sam Cope, Kyle Ginns and Mark Rayment.
Cardea, before their win over Leverington Sports, (back) Junior Jones, Kieran Hart, Daryn Whiteman, Tom Rimes, James Wilson, Michael Williams, John Reddell, Martyn Fox, Nathan Ginty and Matthew Robinson, front Mike Dandrilli, Ash Baldwin, Dan Baldwin, Thomas Klinkovics, Dan Grieves, Sam Cope, Kyle Ginns and Mark Rayment.

The city side joined the competition in Division Four in 2016 and four successive promotions later they played their first match as a Premier League club and won it, 3-1 against Leverington Sports ay Yaxley FC last Saturday.

Tom Klinkovics scored twice with Kieran Hart also on target.

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Okay their final promotion after a fourth-placed finish in Division One last season was a little fortunate as Polonia’s late request for a demotion from the top-flight was quickly followed by league officials asking if Cardea wanted to take the ultimate step up.

“It’s always been our aim to play in the Premier Division so we quickly said yes,” Cardea manager Matt Robinson said.

“We were confident that we, and the other teams that came up, would cope with the standard and if Saturday was our acid test we passed it with flying colours.

“We played played pretty well and deserved to win. It’s just the start we wanted as we now know we can win games at this level.

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“We did a bit of homework on Leverington before we played them and although they are not traditionally one of the strongest teams in the league they usually do well enough to stay out of trouble at the bottom.

“They came back to equalise early in the second-half on Saturday, but we scored two late goals to make it a very pleasing start.

“We are pretty much the same group of players that started out in Division Four with just one or two additions.

“We have an excellent team spirit as a result and that should help us this season.

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“We are used to being towards the top of the league. We won Division Three and we were in a play-off final in Divisioon Two when the league decided to promote both teams and now we’ve gone up because of Covid and points per game!”

Cardea had originally missed out on promotion to Stilton United by 0.03 of a point before Polonia decided to drop out of the top flight.

Cardea run two teams in the Peterborough League and a ladies team. The first team are at Long Sutton tomorrow (September 12).

Cardea also field a team in the Peterborough Sunday Morning League which is due to kick off on September 20.

FIXTURES

Saturday, September 12

Peterborough Premier Division

Crowland v Leverington, Eye v Holbeach Res, Parson Drove v Ketton, Long Sutton v Cardea, Netherton v Uppingham, Oakham v Stilton, Stamford Lions v ICA Sports.

Related topics:Premier LeaguePremier Division

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