Lake House clinch Mercantile ‘B’ Division soccer title
Bernard Perera
Lake House Sports Club won the Mercantile ‘B’ division knock out
soccer title yesterday at the Sports Ministry ground beating Hayleys
Group SC by two goals to nil. Lake House playing in Group B maintained
an unbeaten record throughout the tournament and entered the final by
defeating John Keells.
Lake House took an early lead in the 15th minute when Manjula
Sirisena collected a good pass from Bhakthi Mendis to net in the first
goal.
They went out for lemons having this lead. The first 15 minutes was
evenly contested. But after Lake House got the lead, Hayley’s could not
keep pace with the Printers. Lake House too made many mistakes during
this period. Specially Hayley’s strikers missed two good scoring
opportunities.
After the turnaround, Lake House tried to increase the lead by making
few good moves.
This tactic paid rich dividends when in the seventh minute M. V.
Surendran netted in the second goal for the Newspapermen.
Hayleys at this stage tried everything in store to reduce the lead.
But all their attempts were thwarted by the opponent’s defence line.
During this period too, Hayley’s strikers were not on target.
Though the midfielders did their job well, front liners failed to
produce good results as the defence line and the custodian of the
Newspapermen played sensibly to hold on to their lead which sealed
victory for them.
Priyanga Pieris who controlled the game had to pull out the Red card
on Hayley’s custodian A. Bernard Dexter with ten minutes left for the
final whistle.
Amana Takaful win
The ‘A’ Division Mercantile knock-out soccer final which commenced
soon after the ‘B’ division final saw Amana Takaful beat Softlogic one
goal to nil to grab the title yesterday.
Both teams played good soccer what is expected in a final. This was
the main reason it went in as a low scoring affair.
First quarter hour which was contested evenly saw the players of both
sides work hard moving up and down. During the first session of play
Softlogic was in possession of the ball for most of the times but failed
to achieve success. The fifteenth minute it was Rifaz Ahamed the left
winger intelligently moved in to score the only goal of the match.
Second half too was dominated by Softlogic Players though they failed
to score as the defenders and the goal keeper of Amana Takaful played
their part well to halt the strikers from scoring.
The last five minutes of the game took a different turn with Amana’s
strikers going an all out attack though did well to pierce through the
defence line failed to find the net until the final whistle was blown by
the referee M.A. Ranjith.
The referee had also to pull out the yellow card on many occasions as
few players from both sides tried to adopt tough tactics.
The award ceremony took place with Chrysahnta Perera, Chief Executive
Officer, FFSC as chief guest who gave away the awards.
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