PUNE, Jan 25: Nelson Lazarus found the net once in each half as Ex-Ornellians registered a 3-1 win over Green Fields Paradise, to move ahead in the IVth late Vasantrao Deshpande Football Tournament organised by the Friends XI Football Club and played at the New English School grounds, Tilak Road.Andrew D'Souza scored the other goal for the winners while a lone for the Green Fields Paradise was scored by Roger Richard.The PDFA under whose aegis the tournament is being conducted seem to have rectified the shortcomings brought to their notice. As per match regulations a fourth referee was seated at the table today while PDFA officials made their presence today at the ground. However linesman Moses could more alert in preventing players from taking a throw-in standing on the line. The match began with Green Fields Paradise dominating the first ten minutes with forward moves. They did everything right and even came close to scoring but the finish was lacking.As the game grew Ex-Ornellianspicked up the rhythm. Their efforts paid off in the 15th minute. Forward line player Nelson Lazarus lobbed the ball from eighteen-yard box which came down straight into the rival goal catching the custodian D Charlie unaware. The game continued with plentiful of moves executed by both sides but coming to a nought. For Ex-Ornellians front liners, Godwin D'Silva, Nelson Lazarus, Andrew D'Souza missed easy opportunities while same was the case with Green Fields their culprits being Abbas Tinwala, Vinod Pillay and Vishal Pillay.Green Fields restored parity in the 23rd minute. A flag-kick taken by Vinod Pillay was well directed in by Roger Richard. Mervyn Barreto defending at that moment failed to block the attempt confronted by an awkward bounce. The first session ended at a goal apiece.Five minutes into the second session Greenfields Zaheer Shaikh charged with the ball towards the goal but his weak attempt was thwarted by the custodian. Left-out Andrew D'Souza latched on to the keeper's re-bounder and sent in a cracking shot which hit the inside of the horizontal bar before making it way into the nets.The rivals missed yet many more scoring chances most of them off target. Left out Andrew D'Souza approaching swiftly from the left flank sent in a cross pass to Nelson Lazarus waiting at the goal mouth, who made no mistake in heading the ball home. Today's fixtures: Knights XI vs Camp XI 3.30 p.m; Shivajians Daund vs Thundercatz `B' 4.45 p.m.
