Match Report | STC 2nd XI 3–3 West Thames 1st XI

St Charles 2^nd XI football opened their league season with a 3-3 draw against a big physical and 'experienced' West Thames 1^st XI. 

The game started at a frantic pace and saw early chances for Rivaldo Murray and Leslie Egwuonwu, both were well saved by the West Thames keeper. Not to be denied the same combo combined with Ayub Hassan to force an error in the West Thames back line and Egwuonwu was on hand to fire an unstoppable shot into the top right hand corner via the underside of the bar. 

This goal put a further spring in the boys step and it was no surprise after prolonged pressure that a corner by Hassan found the unmarked Rivaldo Murray who headed STC 2 nil ahead. The rest of the half was end to end with both teams battling hard, Ned Malit, Dorrell Murray and Ayub El Haddad putting in some great defensive work to ensure that STC went into the half time break with our clean sheet intact. 

The 2^nd half saw West Thames come out the traps quick and strong, playing an even more direct and physical game, this allowed the opposition to score two quick fire goals and leave the game firmly in the balance. Subs were introduced to breath new life into the game and add fresh legs into the mix and two of these combined well to see Soulaiman Antifit feed striker Salah Attia who showed good strength to hold off the defender before striking low and hard into the net to give STC the lead once more. Unfortunately, with only four minutes remaining a mistake on the left hand side saw a sharp passage of play cut through us and West Thames drew themselves level once more.  Despite there only being a few minutes on the clock we still had time for goalkeeper Leon Agani to make a good low save and chance up the other end for Rivaldo and Attia go to waste.

A hard fought game, that had a bit of everything - the boys should be proud of their efforts and will look to go one better next week where they play in the 2^nd round of the AoC national cup against higher league SFX's academy. 

*Pictured are today's goalscorers Salah Attia, Leslie Egwuonwu and Rivaldo Murray