It meant a Lot to play for County with my brother
Cup rout’s a family affair for Vic and William
VICTOR LOTURI experienced a flood of emotion after 30 minutes – and it owed nothing to his spectacular opener.
Four minutes after the Canadian hit the top corner, brother William Akio came on for the injured Josh Sims. It was a moment that meant the world to Loturi and older sibling Akio.
Both were making their first starts and both were to make a huge impact for County.
Loturi was born in Alberta after his family fled civil war in Sudan via a Kenyan refugee camp where Akio was born. The pair had never played together in the same team until Saturday. Loturi said: “When I saw William come on to the field I got pretty emotional.
“It was a really good moment for me and our family, given where we have come from. My family were watching updates on Twitter. There was no stream but I know how proud my mum and dad will be.”
County showed signs they could be an even stronger force than last season’s top-six side. While the League Two men held little of the threat they will face in the Premiership, there looks to be pace, dynamism and attacking threat in Malky Mackay’s squad.
Loturi added: “We started off pretty well but we needed that first goal just to get us started, and it was a good performance.
“I don’t score often so it felt good to get that one.
“I feel like we needed that big win coming into the game against Hearts on Saturday. We can hopefully bring that performance into the league.
“The guys in front of me make my job super easy with their movement. I just have to execute the pass. The whole front three are fast and technical, whether it’s Yan Dhanda, my brother or Kazeem Olaigbe.
“I’m excited to play with these new team-mates. They have been really good to me and it has been very easy for me to settle.”
County took time to turn their dominance into goals, but Loturi and Ben Purrington netted in the first half before five goals in 19 minutes put the Fifers to the sword.
All the finishes came from summer signings with the pace and prowess of Owura Edwards and sub Kazeem Olaigbe securing doubles after another fine finish from Jordy Hiwula. Stevie Crawford’s young side simply had no answers. The East Fife boss said: “We were pleased with aspects of the first half. We were losing 2-0 but I knew Malky had recruited very well after being very good last season. “We knew it was going to be very tough, not least because they needed the win to win the group. “We did well in terms of keeping our shape and competing. We had a good wee spell in the first half when we might actually have scored. “We simply couldn’t deal with their ruthlessness after the break but the one thing I couldn’t fault was our players’ effort.”