The Hindu : Sport / Football : SBT begins in style

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 11, 2005

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Sport - Football

SBT begins in style

Sports Reporter

THRISSUR: They may have come a cropper in the National Football League, but the men from State Bank of Travancore (SBT) are too hot to handle at the State-level. Central Excise found that out in the Royal Challenge State football league at the Sree Kerala Varma College here on Tuesday. The bankmen blanked the Kochi side 4-0 as they opened the title defence on a confident note before a goodly crowd.

And they could have even doubled that score, but for some fine saves by the Excise custodian Shinu Joseph. He did his best, but it's never an easy task keeping the goal against SBT's talented forwards. Asif Saheer had a good game, scoring a goal and creating another. K.M. Abdul Noushad, Abdul Hakkim and substitute A.G. Mohammed Aslam were the other scorers.

Noushad opened the scoring in the 11th minute, when he found the right angle from close in with a well-measured grounder, ensuring that all the hard work and dribbling by Asif weren't wasted. The Thiruvananthapuram men couldn't add to that tally in the first-half, though they threatened to do so on many occasions, but they were denied by Shinu, who at one stage made three brilliant saves inside as many minutes.

SBT continued to attack after the breather and Hakkim struck in the 59th minute when he volleyed in from outside the box off a rebound. Then 15 minutes later, Asif was at his dribbling best again, getting past the 'keeper after a goalmouth melee. Aslam, who came in for Hakkim, completed the tally in the 87th minute, nudging the ball in after Shinu fumbled with a Pradeep shot.

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