Unique Premier League Div 1:

Sailors drown Nandimithra 4-0

by Bernard PERERA

Sri Lanka Navy carried away their fifth successive championship in the soccer field when they won the 'Unique Premier Division I title yesterday at City Football Complex.

Sailors defeated Nandimithra SC CSF four goals to nil after leading three nil at lemons. The winners got to the lead in the eleventh minute of the game when E.A.C. Sanjeeva scored the best goal of the match. Receiving fine cross from left wing he made no mistake with his bullet like kick to put the Sailors in front.

CSF boys made many attempts to find the solution making few in roads to the opponents territory, but failed to score. The battle went on for few more minutes and Navy found the net again to extend the lead 2-0 through L.A.P. Lakshitha - with 10 minutes away from the whistle for lemons Lakshitha struck again to get his double and the third for Sailors.

Lemon were taken at this stage and the teams returned for the next session.

Nandimithra used many tactics to penetrate the Sailors defence, but could not make use of their attempts. However this session saw the Nandimithra boys play better soccer than the previous half.

This caused few problems to Sailors defence lines, but their skipper cum custodian H.M. Ajith Kumara played a vital role between the posts to halt the Nandimithra from scoring. Kumara was at his best yesterday.

P.R. Thilanka Nandasiri collecting a good ball from left wing found the net with a fine kick to put things in favour of the Sailors. Though the Nandmithra lost the final they too performed well to keep the packed house in their toes displaying good football. Navy had to miss the services of their three key players as they are in the national pool.

The Navy were awarded the 'Unique Premier League Trophy' and cash prize of Rs. 300,000, while runners-up received Rs. 200,000 R. Puvananediran the Managing Director of Unique Apparels the sponsor was the chief guest and gave away the awards.