Combine makes shaky start in NCC finals November 20, 2009
Defending champion, Southern Forest Combine of Navua made a shaky start to its title defence and managed to register a narrow 3-2 victory over Service Sports in its opening match of the National Club Championship finals at Ratu Cakobau Park in Nausori.
The star studded Navua outfit found the going tough against the senior division club from Taveuni who played a lot of guts and determination.
Defender-cum-striker Rajneel Chand scored the lone goal of the first half as Combine led 1-0 at the breather and Alvin Avinesh from a freekick doubled the advantage for the side early in the second spell.
Service hit back midway in the second spell through striker Mohammed Yasin who stunned the Navua defence after finishing off a well set move by Atish Lal.
Replacement striker Simione Tamanisau injected more strength to the Combine attack and scored a goal from 25 metres out which gave Service goalie Ilaitia Lalokabaira no chance, extending Combine’s lead to 3-1.
But Yasin once again narrowed the gap in the dying stages of the game after brilliantly finishing off from a corner kick.
Combine coach Gurjit Singh said his side made many silly mistakes and took their opponents very lightly.
“The boys played well but took a very casual approach to the match which has resulted in such a narrow margin.”
“They took the opponents very lightly and did not play to the best of their abilities.”
“We are here to defend our title and need to take a very serious and cautious approach in all the matches and I will be talking to the players about this before taking the field for the next match.”
Meanwhile, in the second match of the finals, the star studded Samabula outfit was held to a goal-less draw by Navua’s Jolly Brothers which was marshaled by Navua striker Pranil Kumar.
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