Senal De Alwis was the hero as he rose to head S.Thomas’ College past Trinity College 1-0 at the 8th Annual Trinity-Thomian Football Encounter held at the Pallakelle Stadium, Kandy.
Thus, the shield stays in Mount Lavinia for a 4th year in a row after last year’s goalless draw under Dion Dias’ leadership. Trinity won in 2011 (3-2) & 2013 (1-0) while the inaugural encounter in 2010 & 2012 were draws with scores reading 2-2 & 0-0 respectively.
Lions huff and puff but couldn’t blow the Thomians down
The 7th Annual Trinity – S.Thomas’ encounter which was worked off at CR and FC grounds ended..
Trinity, under the captaincy of midfield Tharika Liyanage held the edge in the early exchanges while playing some decent attacking football. From the onset however, it was evident that the hill country side were not all out in attack as they maintained their back line steadily. Udayantha Giragama and Mohamed Fayas played key roles in making sure that the defence stayed steady.
The attacking responsibility was in the hands of skipper Liyanage, who together with Diviyan Nadaraja, who created big gaps in the Thomian defence. Through this, Trinity managed to whip multiple crosses into the boxes, all of which were comfortably dealt with by the Thomian defence.
In an extremely slow-paced game, both teams struggled to create a sustained period of dominance as possession exchanged hands multiple times.
Trinity, through some smart wing play, had a number of chances to break the deadlock, but failures on the part of their forwards, particularly Mohamed Akeel, who missed a sitter with just the keeper to beat kept the game scoreless.
S.Thomas’, who increased the pressure coming into the last phases of the first half then rocked the Trinity support, when they nicked the half time lead through a Senal De Alwis header. The Thomians, who put in some good play down the right flank swung in a cross and the shortest man on the pitch went up and headed home past the hapless goalie, Mohamed Akeel.
Half Time – Trinity College 0 – 1 S.Thomas’ College
The second half kicked off at pedestrian pace with S.Thomas’ retaining the lion share of possession. Even though they saw most of the ball, the boys in blue and black failed to move the ball into the final third.
As the game went on, their confidence improved and the visitors started playing far better, and resorted to the smart tactic of the lofted through ball on more than one occasion. This gave the isolated De Alwis something to work with, and the tiny striker did brilliantly to test the keeper multiple times, especially with a bullet effort with his weaker left foot which was saved by Akeel.
As the clock ran down on Trinity College, the home side suddenly found a new lease of life and an urgency that they seemed to lack throughout the game. The Lions started playing far more creative football with the creativity coming from the middle of the park.
Nadaraja, who had a good first half showed pace and power to break through the middle of the park while Liyanage did well to spread the ball out wide, but the Thomian defence stood upto the challenge. This culminated in the Liyanage winning a freekick just outside the box.
In what was Trinity’s best chance by far, Liyanage stepped up took the kick which curled a floated up and over the wall, only to see it tipped over by Thomian goalkeeper Ishrath Raji.
Trinity, who then won a succession of corners continued to pile on the pressure with some dangerous crosses and nearly restore parity through the most unlikely of sources in Afkar Laffar, the Thomian midfielder, who displayed precise technique at the wrong end of the pitch. Luckily for the Thomians however, the effort was cleared and the full time whistle followed shortly after.
Full Time – Trinity College 0 – 1 S.Thomas’ College
ThePapare.com Player of the Match – Senal De Alwis
Junior Matches
Under 16
A Team – STC 1 – 0 TCK
B Team – STC 0 – 1 TCK
Under 14
A Team – STC 2 – 0 TCK
B Team – STC 0 – 1 TCK
Under 12
A Team – STC 1 – 1 TCK
B Team – STC 0 – 1 TCK
