Goodwill in final

With the first-half being confined within the 25-yard zones, Joseph’s looked the better outfit with two chances going abegging, the first by Dawood Gadyali and later by Sachin Godse both trying to finish off the chances offered in flamboyant style.

Goodwill on the other hand received one gilt-edged chance just before the hooter. Rocky Anthony playing the ball from the right had Gunashekhar Peratambi with open space inside the Joseph’s circle. A hasty approach thereafter had Gunashekhar find his foot connect the ball rather than his stick which fizzled out the attempt, as though nothing ever happened.

Changing ends, Joseph’s played defenders initially which almost had their citadel fall off the first penalty corner they conceded. Goodwill negotiating the penalty-corner indirectly had Gunashekhar relay the ball to Arikaswamy Dass on the right.

The hit which followed was neatly blocked by Joseph’s custodian Peerzade Irani and allowed the lurking Gunashekhar tap home which unfortunately was disallowed for dangerous play.

In the 34th minute, Goodwill finally scored. Vishnu Naidu scheming the ball well fed Rocky Anthony with a through ball leaving Joseph’s defence comprising of Anthony Nelson, Sandeep Shirsat and Sandeep Godse beaten. Rocky’s however failed to rise to the occasion as his weak attempt was blocked by the custodian which rolled on to unmarked Sikander Jaffer who made no mistake with the opportunity provided.

A flurry of attacks by the Joseph lads saw them concede a total of four penalty corners in a span of 15 minutes, leaving their defenders Satish Gaikwad, Raju Hazare, Arikswamy scamper in their bid to avert these attacks.

In one such movement, Anthony moving up from the defence deep into the Goodwill half had his forward pass be muffed up by Sachin with just the custodian to beat.

If Joseph’s made a match of the proceedings, it was mainly due to the combination of Anthony and Sandeep who made deep futile inroads.