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Match Recap: North Toronto Nitros 1 - 2 Oakville Blue Devils

By League1 Ontario staff, 06/26/17, 10:30PM EDT

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Mathew Santos (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Mathew Santos (7', 28') led the way for Oakville Blue Devils on Matchweek Nine as the first placed team in the west division beat North Toronto Nitros - the second ranked team in the east division - with a final scoreline of 2-1.  

"We put a lot of focus on the game tapes before this one because we had two or three midfielders missing, so we played a little bit differently today than we normally do," explained Oakville Blue Devils head coach, Duncan Wilde. "I think it worked out for us." 

"You can see how difficult they are to take points from and at the end we had to defend very well and they almost got back into it with a late counter-attack," he added. 

"But I think on the balance of play our shape was really good, our counter-attacking play was really good and our finishing was excellent in the first half. In the end I think we we deserved our points and we were happy with it." 


Lukas McNaughton (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Lukas McNaughton (84') dispatched a late penalty for the Nitros and catalyzed the home side's momentum to push for a late equalizer, but there was no getting through the Blue Devils defence. 

"We're disappointed because we thought today we could have taken points away," said North Toronto team official, Gary Fleming.

"They're top because they're a tough team to play against." 

"We wanted to use the wings, get in behind and get good low and hard crosses. We know their keeper is a good keeper and if you look at both teams, all over the park they were taller than us. They would have won everything in the air. We didn't get the chance that we wanted but we pounced on the mistake, got the penalty and made it interesting." 


(Photo: Martin Bazyl)

Oakville have had a steady run of form to guide them through the first phase of inter-divisonal matches and put them top of the west division, and have done well in the second cross-divisional phase of the season as well. The form and consistency of the team is looking more like Oakville Blue Devils side that won the League1 Ontario title in 2015 - the first year the club entered the league.

"We've got back to more of the structure that we had in our first season," agreed Wilde. 

"Last season we experimented a lot and it obviously didn't pay off for us."

"We've kind of got back to being a little bit more consistent in our play, our system and our selection. It is difficult to get in our team right now, competition for places is exciting to see at training and we're putting some good performances together."

"Eight wins in a row we have strung together. But we're just going to take it like we did in our first year and go week by week because in this league anybody can beat anybody on any given weekend so we just have to do our job."


(Photo: Martin Bazyl)

North Toronto Nitros will next play North Mississauga Panthers on June 30 at Varsity Stadium, Toronto. 

Oakville Blue Devils will next play Durham United FA on July 2 at Sheridan College, Oakville.