A hat-trick from Akhi Saif helped the Kingston first team to a 4-2 win against the Kingston second team.
In a friendly game that was split into three periods of 30 minutes, it was Saif that opened the scoring with a smart finish past goalkeeper Lewis Rock-Powell in the 37th minute, after a through ball from Umeh Ebube Casmir.
Despite the first team dominating possession, and some impressive saves from Rock-Powell, it was the second’s who scored next. Casmir, who had swapped sides during the second interval, scored with a near post finish past the goalkeeper in the 66th minute to equalise.
The second’s then took the lead, Charlie Melville scoring after a decent spell of possession, to make it 2-1 in the 68th minute. Their lead didn’t last long though, as in the 71st minute, Saif equalised with his second goal of the game, a left footed shot which took a deflection and went in the top corner.
Left back Daniel Alafuonye evaded a challenge and kept his composure to put the first’s back in front with a right-footed finish hammered low to the keeper’s right hand side and into the corner.
Saif completed his treble in the 79th minute, a left-footed deflected effort ending up in the top corner, sealing the win for the firsts. He almost added a fourth shortly after, but his header came back off the post.
There are no competitions this semester, so the university football teams will have to make do with friendlies until the league starts in January.
Asked what his aspirations are for the season, first team captain Patryk Mikluch said: “Last season we didn’t have the best season and got relegated, this season we have a stronger team and our main target is to get promoted. We feel we can do that this year.”
Second team captain James Szalay was upbeat despite his side’s defeat. He said: “We’ve got a load of fresh players, I don’t even know all of their names yet, but it’s promising. They’re looking like a really good group of lads, and I think we could do massive stuff in the league.”
Josh Smith 
Caitlin Hamill