Fernandes guides St Andrew’s title march

MUMBAI, JAN 29: St Andrew's won the Mumbai University Inter-Collegiate hockey title when they defeated Rizvi 1-0 in the concluding league...

MUMBAI, JAN 29: St Andrew’s won the Mumbai University Inter-Collegiate hockey title when they defeated Rizvi 1-0 in the concluding league match at the Khalsa College Ground here today.

St Andrew’s needed to win their final match in the four-team super league, after they had drawn goalless against hosts Khalsa yesterday. They had three points going into the final match against Rizvi’s 4. Rizvi had won both their matches — 1-0 against Khalsa and 6-0 against RKT.

An early goal from St Andrew’s decided the trend of the match. They then put nearly seven to eight men behind and defended assiduously while the opposition panicked.

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The goal came off a beautiful move in the 12th minute. Sanjay Fernandes moved down the left dribbling past three defenders, and, from the goalline, reverse flicked the ball to Andre Rocha who tapped it in.

Rizvi went on a desperate hunt for the goal. Their efforts were centred around Asad Khan, the fulcrum of all their attacks.

Asad had the best chance of the match when he wasdelivered a ball but, having his back to the goal, could not convert.

St Andrew’s did get jittery at times and tended to release the ball early in their desperation to get it out of defence. But they soon gathered their wits and held the ball for longer periods to frustrate Rizvi.

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In an inconsequential match, Khalsa defeated RK Talreja 8-0. RKT started the match with just eight players and having lost both their earlier matches, were reluctant to take the field. They did well to restrict Khalsa to just two goals in the first half, before the floodgates opened in the second.Rajiv Choudhary scored three goals, while the other strikes came from Ashish Gonsalves, Carlyle D’Mello, Leonard Pereira, Aditya Menon, and Savio Gonsalves.