St. Andrews net a late winner to overcome Sydenham College

by Kaushal Shukla September 9, 2015

St. Andrews College, Bandra left it late to secure a 2-1 win over Sydenham College in the inter-collegiate Mumbai University football tournament game held at the University Pavilion at Marine Lines on Monday, 7th September 2015.

The game endured a slow start to the game as neither side had any kind of tempo to their game which resulted into a scrap in the middle of the park until the 23rd minute when St. Andrews won a free kick just outside the box. The free kick got deflected and fell at the feet of Quadros Elton who made no mistake to fire home from six yards and give St. Andrews the crucial lead in the tight encounter.

The goal brought some rhythm to St. Andrews’ play as they started going forward with a lot more confidence. The confidence was evident in Pereira Floyd’s long range effort in the 34th minute as his shot went inches over the crossbar.

But slightly against the run of the play, Sydenham College equalized from a corner in the 38th minute when Faizan Kader headed home just outside the six yard box after being allowed to make a run into that area without being marked.

St. Andrews paid the price for loss in concentration during defending the set-piece and went into the break on level terms against a Sydenham College side who had hardly threatened to score in the entire half.

The second half had a cagey start to it as both the teams’ attacks looked toothless against two solid looking defences. Quadros Elton almost lit up the dull affair with s ferocious strike which was brilliantly parried away onto the post by the Sydenham College goalkeeper Moiz Zrinpurwala in the 67th minute.

Zrinpurwala was at the thich of the action yet again, five minutes later when he nearly made a mess of looped shot, only to recover well and make a save at full stretch. Ten minutes later, Zrinpuwala had to be alert again to deny the St. Andrews substitute Daniel D’Souza who was brilliantly released through on goal by Quadros Elton who had been a bright spot for St. Andrews all afternoon.

Evenually St. Andrews got their goal in the 90th minute when a clever threaded pass from Kunder Reul was met by Castelion Meonyn who made no mistakes in sending his shot in the top corner and spark celebrations in the St. Andrews camp.

Sydenham College had little time to do anything about the scoreline as they succumbed to defeat thanks to the late St. Andrews winner.

St. Andrews were slightly the better team in the game and posed greater threat going forward as compared to Sydehnam who had to pay dearly for a failed offside trap in the dying minutes of the game.