Kidlington defenders the stars .. against the stars

Solid defensive work paved the way for Kidlington as the visitors took all three points at Cutterslowe Park. In both matches Summertown had as much possession as Kidlington, but while the visitors converted a lot of the opportunities they created, the home team rarely found a way past the visiting rearguard.

In the first game, Marcus Tranter gave an all-action display at right-back, defending well and pushing forward whenever possible, and was unlucky to see his fine header from a corner cleared off the line, and a pile-driver from distance rattle the crossbar. Defensive partner Archie Littlewood showed excellent positional sense and made several great tackles. In the second game Will Baker made some trademark crunching tackles to good effect, while Fraser Day also battled hard in defense as well as marauding dangerously up the left-wing on occasion. Keepers Archie Devlin and Joe Keighrey also made some exceptional saves and were only beaten once each.

Stars took the lead early on in the first game through Alex Mikaelis, before Kidlington began to settle down. Two goals each from Ethan Couling and Luca Sykes and one from Jamie Slevin saw the visitors win the first game 5-1.

Callum Rolfe put the visitors ahead in the second game before Jack Dark equalised. Rolfe restored Kidlington's lead with a trademark run and finish from midfield and only a great block from the home keeper denied him a well-deserved hat-trick. Sadly for the keeper, Ben Owen was following up well to slot home the rebound for Kidlington's third. Skipper Ben Stewart wrapped up the victory for Kidlington with a fine solo goal late on, to leave the final score 4-1 and 9-2 overall - a scoreline that was a little harsh on Summertown who had good spells of possession and showed some great quick passing, but on the other hand Kidlington also hit the woodwork 4 times during the morning.