With its last game of the regular season coming up on September 20, London City will have to wait for the outcome of other late season games to determine if the side from southwestern Ontario has a berth in the championship playoffs following a 4-3 home defeat in the hands of Burlington SC Friday.
It was a ding-dong struggle at the Hellenic Centre in London with the outcome in doubt until the final whistle and the defeat left the home side needing more points than is available in their regular season finale to be sure of a playoff spot.
The prolific Marin Vucemilovic Grgic had London off to a flying start with two goals, the first at 16 minutes and another seven minutes later for a 2-0 lead, but that was cut to 2-1 when Burlington defender Nikola Stanojevic scored from the penalty spot at 45 minutes, the penalty awarded by referee Justin Tasev following a foul in the box. It was 2-1 at half-time.
The goals by Vucemilovic-Grgic were his 15th and 16th of the season and he leaps into second position in the goalscoring chart.
Stanojevic scored a second goal from the spot, awarded for a hand ball infringement for a 2-2 tie at 71 minutes.
Burlington went ahead 3-2 at the 73rd minute mark, a goal by Nenad Nikolic who found the net past London goalkeeper Corey Laureano, but it took less than two minutes for London to tie the score 3-3 when forward Robert Mutambala put the ball past Burlington goalkeeper Vladimir Vujasinovic.
Midfielder Nicholas Lindsay struck the winner for Burlington at 75 minutes, his 9th of the season.
The win gives Burlington SC an improved 6-11-0 WLT for 18 points and now tied for 8th position in the table, while London City have a 7-11-3 for 24 points in seventh position.
