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FC London Continues Bright Start With 4-1 Win Over Sanjaxx

By League1 Ontario staff, 05/08/16, 1:30PM EDT

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Mike Marcoccia (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

FC London's bright start to their League1 Ontario inaugural season continued following a Mike Marcoccia (40', 45') brace en route to a 4-1 away win over Sanjaxx Lions.

"We agreed on a particular gameplan for the match, and the team executed it perfectly," said London head coach, Mario Despotovic.

"I think we controlled the game, but there was one period when Sanjaxx pressed us very high and they did it really, really well. I think that's the period when they scored a goal."


Stefan Nikolic

Sanjaxx started the second half with a different mentality however, pressing London players in possession high up the pitch, forcing errors, and quickly capitalizing through Stefan Nikolic (48') just after the restart. 

"I told them at half that we could get it back, and we came out and got one after making some changes and tweaking things a little bit," said Sanjaxx head coach, Peter Mellon. 

"I thought the first forty minutes we competed very well with them in every department. They are a very well organized, well structured team and I thought we did very well. We went one goal down which was a bit unfortunate and then a penalty in the first half."


Elvir Gigolaj (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

However big central forward Elvir Gigolaj (73') also began to grow in influence, hitting the post in the 71st minute before putting one away between the sticks only a couple minutes later. 

Both teams rotated through substitutions in the final twenty minutes, trying to find a winning formula. As the rain began to pound down, it was eighty-first minute London sub Alex Eby (90') to put the match well out of reach of the home side, depositing London's fourth of the night on the stroke of ninety minutes.

"Once our players found the solution to the problem of Sanjaxx's pressing, they started to contol the game again. We kept trying to build from the back, and in the end it was 4-1 - I think this was deserved."

"We'll take some positives away from this game," concluded Mellon. "I'm very optimistic for the future with this team, and I think they will continue to compete very well."