Airmen fly high

Bernard PERERA

A fine second half rally saw the Airmen oust table leaders Renown when they defeated Old Bens by four goals to one at City Football League Ground yesterday.

Airmen who were behind Renown SC by one point in the points table took a clear lead of two points.

Old Bens who entered the field as underdogs lying right at the bottom of the points table, played a solid game for nearly 15 minutes and got ahead of the Airmen 1-0.

Anthony Prabagar was scorer for the Kotahena team who held their fort stubbornly to halt the Airmen from scoring throughout the first session and went for lemons with a 1-nil lead.

The second session began with Air Force adopting a different pattern of play to outsmart the Kotahena lads. This method produced good results with only seven minutes of play in the second half, when skipper Pradeep Kumara netted in the equalizer which was also a morale booster for the Airmen.

There was no stopping them from there onwards as Air Force went on an all out attack.

They had most of the possession and penetrated the defence line on many occasions.

Old Bens custodian Dexter Anthony Bernard made few good saves at this stage. Just six minutes later the Airmen went ahead through a goal coming from the foot of S. Rajeev.

They put more pressure on the Old Bens with many classy moves but failed to find the net and add to their tally.

With twenty minutes to go for the final whistle S.N.M. Nazar added the third goal for Air Force.

Airmen who were struggling in the first session were really in control of the game at this stage.

Old Bens on the other hand were defending and not attacking.

The fourth goal from L. Sanjeeva sealed the game for Air Force which came in the 71st minute of the game.

The game was well controlled by B.M.S. Basnayake.

The players of both teams also need to be commended on for playing a game that saw with the least number of yellow cards being shown.