The Hindu : Sport / Football : SBT in last four

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 15, 2005

Sport

Sport - Football

SBT in last four

Principal Corrospondent

THRISSUR: For those following the (mis)fortunes of SBT in the NFL this season, the last half-hour of its State league encounter at the Sree Kerala Varma College Ground here on Saturday must've been a bit of déjà vu. For, the hunter had suddenly become hunted, and the bankmen seemed ready to concede a goal or more at any stage.

But, then, Travancore Titanium, isn't quite in the class of an NFL side, and even for SBT, it wouldn't have been easy to squander a lead of 4-1. The bankmen won this all-Thiruvananthapuram encounter by that margin in the end and expectedly moved to the semifinals, topping Group `B'. Titanium, for which it was a must-win game, went out, as Central Excise, Kochi, finished runner-up.

In the semifinals, Excise, takes on KSEB on Sunday and SBT meets Viva on Monday.

T. Asif Saheer, who netted a brace, skipper Ignatious Sylvester and N.P. Pradeep were the scorers for the winner, while substitute Sajan Louis reduced the margin for Titanium. It was quite an eventful match in fact, as there was a penalty being saved and a sent-off.

The bankmen didn't take long to settle down, and they went ahead in the 15th minute, as Pradeep found the net following a flag kick taken by Abdul Noushad. The second goal came in the 25th minute, with Asif beautifully placing the ball into the top right corner of the net, after getting pass

from Ignatious. Asif struck again in the very next minute, off a cross from Hakim down the left.

Then Sajan scored for Titanium, with a feeble shot that went through the hands of the SBT custodian Jean Christian, who, though had saved a spot kick taken by M. Boniface shortly before the interval.

Ignatious scored the last goal for SBT in the 56th minute, heading in a neatly taken flag kick by Mohammed Harris.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport