Southern Forest Navua made a flying start in the NEWWORLD National League and beat Swift Engineering Nasinu 5-0 at Thompson Park yesterday.

Navua with the services of former Rewa reps Simione Tamanisau and Usaia Tadu alongside former Suva defender Apisai Smith outclassed a young an inexperienced Nasinu outfit which played its first match as a unit.

National U23 team bad boy Ben Kumar also appeared for Navua in the match and dictated play from the centre midfield. Kumar who was fined $10,000 and banned for five years with six other players for camp breaking had his fined cleared by Navua FA on Thursday to allow him to play in the fixture.

A notable exclusion from the Navua lineup was Valerio Nawatu who is still undecided about his playing career this season as the national striker is still weighing his options over the offers he has received from Navua and Lautoka this season.

Navua led 2-0 at halftime through Esala Ali and Monit Chand goals and increased its lead in the second spell through another three goals. Esala Ali scored his double and Rajnesh Raju also scored twice in the second spell to send the Navua fans in frenzy.

Southern Forest Navua boss Anil Sharma was happy with the win at home and said that the boys would have to train much harder to face the tougher opponents in the competition.

“I am happy with the start and getting five goals is always better but the team needs to train much harder and prepare well if we are to match the big guns in the remaining fixtures. Nasinu fielded a fairly young team and I take my hats off to them for focusing on development and giving young boys a chance.”

“They may not have won today but if given proper guidance the team will certainly do well in future” added Sharma.

Nasinu coach Mahid Murad accepted the defeat graciously and added that his young brigade needs time to nurture into a formidable outfit.

“My boys are very young and most of them played at district level for the first time therefore they were very nervous but as time goes on the team will improve and I am urging the Nasinu supporters to back the team as it is made up of genuine Nasinu boys and a youthful one which needs a lot of support” said Murad.

Navua travels to Nausori to face Rewa in its next fixture while Nasinu will host Nadi.


The Teams:
Nasinu: Epeli Loloma, Atish Veeran, Amit Kumar (Ashish Chand), Imtiaz Khan, Moshin Ali (Dharmen Prasad), Kaushik Kumar, Shalesh Chand (Tamaikali Dunadamu), Michael Naqasau, Shameer Ali, Zaid Suleman, Sai Sami.

Navua: Simione Tamanisau, Ben Kumar, Seveci Rokotakala (Walusio Tabuyalewa), Pene Erenio, Simione Maikali, Usaia Tadu, Apisai Smith, Monit Chand (Michael Kumar), Siga Ali, Esala Ali (Sakenasa Doli), Shonal Sharma (Rajnesh Raju).

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