MSSA: It's a high five for Navy Children

Colaba boys replace St Mary's SSC atop Pool 'A' with thumping 5-1 victory

Navy Children (Colaba) are enjoying a stellar campaign so far. Their 5-1 demolition of St Mary's SSC (Mazgaon) in the Mumbai School Sports Association (MSSA) U-16 Div I inter-school football tournament yesterday at Azad Maidan propelled them to the top of Pool 'A'. And with just two games to go, they are well on their way to the playoffs.

Navy Children (Colaba) players celebrate a goal en route to their 5-1 victory over St Mary's SSC in a MSSA U-16 Division I League encounter at Azad Maidan yesterday. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

St Mary's and Navy Children went into the match as the top two teams in Pool 'A', with the former occupying the first place with eight points from four games, and the latter in second spot, with seven points from four games.

End-to-end action
And as expected, the game provided end-to-end action from the word go. St Mary's were as energetic as always, but it was the Navy Children who took the lead in the 22nd minute through the impressive Prince Kulhari, who ran half the pitch before calmly slotting home past 'keeper Usama Ansari. The second goal (37th minute) came off an error by the 'keeper, who let Naveen Kumar's weak free-kick in through his legs.

Navy continued their domination scoring two more goals in the space of two minutes — through Rahul Sethi and Prince in the 42nd and 43rd minute respectively. Ali Raza pulled one back for St Mary's, but Rahul added another in the 57th minute as the Navy Children capped off a stunning performance.

Navy coach Randhir Singh was ecstatic with his side's display and was confident that his boys will maintain their form in the remaining two games ahead of the playoffs. "I am really happy with this display. We are really confident that we can win our remaining two games too. We got a bit complacent after we were 4-0 up, but overall, it was fine show."

St Mary's coach Deepak Irmali said that some of his players were unavailable yesterday due to a test in school. "We did not have a few players today, namely Parth Dagal, due to a test being conducted in school. The parents did not allow some of the boys to come for this match and that's sad," he said.

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