St. Clare's Boys Football Team v. Oxford Spires Academy

The football team was defeated 3 – 2 in Round two of the Oxfordshire Schools league against Oxford Spires Academy. The hosts got the perfect start when they scored in the fifth minute. They soon doubled their lead with a wonderful volley shot past Daniel Schmidt-Fischer. Keidi Kapllani was judged to have fouled the Oxford Spires attacker in the visitor's penalty area and they added a third before the half-time interval.

The half time team talk was very simple. The St. Clare's boys needed to play some football in the midfield area. Remigiusz Manko moved into midfield from attack and Nikita Fadeev replaced Dean Celaj. The St. Clare's midfield looked a better defensive and attacking unit with Milivoje Sestovic and Vitor Pereira using a variety of short and long passes to start new attacks. One of these long ball passes to Nikita resulted in a fine goal from the substitute. This was his second goal in successive matches. Federico Pileri added another with a long range shot from the right side of midfield which was low and direct and beat the opposition goalkeeper on his near post. The St. Clare's team was unlucky not to score the equalizing goal in the last 5 minutes.

So yet again the team started slow and allowed the opposition to take the initiative in the game. However, this time the task of coming back from a 3 -0 score line was too much to achieve. The second half display was encouraging and it showed the positive attitude that the boys have.

The team was:
Daniele Schmidt-Fischer; Keidi Kapllani; Jan Heins; Louis Cigrang; Niklas Rehm, (Captain); Milivoje Sestovic; Federico Pileri; Vitor Pereira; Remigiusz Manko; Dean Celaj; Jan Phan.

Replacements:
Nikita Fadeev replaced Dean Celaj; Ali Naif Dzhaber replaced Jan Phan; Chung Yin (Nicolas) Fan and Vladislav Romanov.

The next league match will against King Alfred's College, Wantage.

November