Naman Gill strikes twice for Navy Children

Naman Gill (left) scores past Christ Church 'keeper Pratham Sangol. Pic/Suresh KK

Mumbai: Riding on Naman Gill's brace, Navy Children (Colaba) beat Christ Church (Byculla) 2-0 in the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) Division I boys' U-10 football match at Azad Maidan yesterday.


Naman Gill (left) scores past Christ Church 'keeper Pratham Sangol. Pic/Suresh KK

Striker Naman opened the scoring in the 10th minute with a brilliant solo effort and then scored the winner in the 22nd minute from an Utsav Rai assist. Christ Church's Ammav Momoin tried to reduce the deficit, but with little support from his teammates, couldn't do much.

Naman was happy to take his side to victory. "It's the first time I scored for my school. I have always been in the team but never got a chance to score. I am really happy that I scored in a do-or-die situation," said the nine-year-old.

"Christ Church played well but didn't get as many chances as us. "Today, luck was on our side otherwise the match could have ended in a goalless draw," said the Class IV student. Navy Children coach Arvind Patil said the win was crucial for them.

"In the four matches so far, we lost two, got a walkover in one and won this one. It was very important for these boys to win this match. A defeat would have sent us out of the tournament. There is one more match that we need to win anyhow if we want to make it to the knock-out stage," said Patil.

Other results
Cathedral & John Connon (Fort) 3 (Jaden Irani 2, Devansh Desai) bt The Scholar High School (Colaba) 0; Sacred Heart 'B' (Worli) 4 (Renson D'Souza 2, Jay Lanjekar, Chaitanya Shinde) bt Aditya Birla World Academy (Tardeo) 0; Don Bosco 'A' (Matunga) 10 (Harsh Palande 4, Liam Pinheiro 3, Keith Fernandes 2, Harsh Naik 1) bt St Paul's (Dadar) 0; St Mary's ICSE (Mazagoan) 1 (Shams Sayed) bt St Joseph's (Wadala) 0