The Hindu : Sport / Football : HASC wins Super Division

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 09, 2004

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Sport - Football

HASC wins Super Division

BANGALORE, OCT. 8. Hindustan Aeronautics Sports Club (HASC) annexed the Super Division football league title for the George Hoover Cup, at the football stadium here on Friday. It defeated MEG Centre 2-1 with the match winner coming in the 87th minute. Murali scored for the winner while Santosh scored for the loser.

Both teams went into the encounter with 22 points apiece. With a superior goal difference HASC was assured of the title even in case of a draw. Nevertheless, it has been the best ever showing by the Sappers in the league.

HASC, which lost the title last year to CIL, recaptured it with an unbeaten record and had earlier in the season pocketed the Puttaiah Shield as well. "We are more or less a settled combination now and the boys are pleased. For the forthcoming Federation Cup in Bangalore and the First Division National league we will have about 10 new faces, we have identified some of them," said coach-cum-manager C. Ravikumar.

Shoddy defence cost MEG the match. In the 34th minute Kenneth Onu chested down a long ball and relayed it to Murali who wasted little time in finding the net past Robikanth Singh under the MEG bar.

Eleven minutes in the second half MEG managed the equaliser when a `dubious' free-kick taken by Sarath Singh was deflected into the net by Santosh catching HASC goalkeeper Subash on the wrong foot.

Despite virtually pitching its tent in the rival half, HASC missed chances galore. In the 87th minute a Dayanand cross from the left saw stoppers Robin Singh and Sreenath make a mess of the clearance and Murali, lying in wait, booted home from close.

In another match of little interest, LRDE routed Government Press 7-4 with G. Ashok netting a hat-trick. Satish (2), Mahendran and Murthy were the other goalgetters for LRDE while Sudhakar (2), Vijaya Babu and Venkatesh (Jr) scored for Govt. Press.

ITI and Government Press will be relegated to A division next season while Royals and AGORC have earned promotion to the Super Division.

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