Naigaum cop it as Hindujas triumph

The incident could have been avoided had the police players set a good example by playing the game in the right spirit. Their players, instead of living upto their name, kept on arguing and questioning referee Salim Abbas’s decisions every time they were pulled up for a foul and were bent on injuring the rivalplayers. One of them, Uday Gade, had to be given marching orders for deliberately injuring an opponent.

The final failed to live upto expectations. Frequent whistling by the referee and the stoppages robbed the charm of an enjoyable evening for the goodly crowd which included a music band.

They first struck in the third minute when consistent goal-getter Vivek Oberoi, put through by medio Vinayak Sawant, beat an onrushing Naigaum Police goalkeeper Ajit Ghadigaokar with a high lob.

Sawant, who had a good day in the mid-field, also set up the second Hinduja goal. He sprinted from the centreline, beat two defenders and then crossed into the goalmouth from the right. The cross caught the Police defenders napping and Santosh Kokate scored from close to make it 2-1 for Hinduja.Earlier, the cops had restored parity just minutes before the breather. Uday Gade beat Hinduja goalkeeper Subhash Dawal with a rising shot after the cops were awarded a penalty.

In the day’s other final, Borivli Rangers claimed theDivision II honours when they edged out Fatima Beach Boys 5-4 via sudden-death. The two teams were locked goalless at the end of full-time and were level 4-4 after the tie-breaker.

Pratik Nirkar, Martin Miranda, O Gonsalves, William Soares and Chintamani Adarkar netted for the Borivli side. Glenn D’Souza, Ronnie D’Souza, Anthony Fernandes and Zico Gomes accounted for Fatima.

Other Results

Division III-A: Sonata 2 (Joseph Steven, N Vijay) bt Salvation Parish 0; Bosco Strikers 4 (Freddy Ignnatius 2, Valenky Rodrigues 2) bt Friends 1 (Ansari Ahesan). Division III-B: Bombay Republicans 2 (Conrad Remedious, Nishit Mehta) bt Classic 1 (M Shaikh); Lazio 2 (Samuel Jeffrey 2) bt IIT, Powai 1 (S N Jha); Mobilink 1 (Oliver Joseph) bt Deablers 0.