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Clean Sheet And Three Goals Over North Miss Keeps FC London Joint-Top Of West

By League1 Ontario staff, 05/29/16, 6:45PM EDT

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FC London continue to show why their grounds nicknamed "The Cove" at the German Canadian Club is developing a reputation as a fortress, dropping North Mississauga S.C. 3-0 to take home all three points.

The result solidifies the club's position as joint-leaders in the western division with Sigma FC.

North Mississauga were difficult opponents on the day, and both teams went into the half-time dressing rooms on equal footing with no goals scored. 

But both teams were forced to change their tactical gameplan, as North Miss suffered two injuries and FC London encountered a tactical puzzle they were not expecting.

"We expected North Miss to play in a 4-2-31 but instead they played a 4-4-2, and the players were not expecting this formation," said FC London head coach, Mario Despotovic.

"At the half-time I explained to them how to outplay the 4-4-2 and that's why we had such a strong second half."

"Yeah for us we got two very early injuries and so our gameplan had to change," said North Miss head coach, Rick Titus.

"I wanted to have the fresh legs in the second half, about ten-fifteen in, and it didn't happen because we just didn't have any numbers on the bench. It was a tired team." 

Shortly after the restart, London demonstrated that they'd found the key to unlock the visitors, with three goals in rapid succession from Gigolaj (47'), Amaya (52') and Ribero (68'). 

With only one sub left on the bench for North Miss, the result was confirmed with some neat possessive play from FC London. London's goalkeeper Sokalaski added another clean sheet to his resume, and FC London completed five games unbeaten in the league.

"Anytime you go away somewhere, you need to be a bit more vigilant defensively," said Titus. "We did that for the first half, which is good because for our first four or five games we gave up really early goals. Hopefully we've beaten that habit now I think, so it's a question of keeping guys healthy and going into the second half with more than one guy on the bench."

North Miss will hope to get back in the saddle quickly as they face North Toronto Nitros on May 31 (8 p.m.) at Hershey Centre 2, Mississauga in the L1 Cup. The next league match for the Panthers is also at home at Hershey Centre 2, Mississauga on June 4 (8 p.m.) versus Sanjaxx Lions. 

FC London are home at "The Cove" on June 3 (7:30 p.m.) against fellow southern Ontario representatives Windsor Stars.