Matara City strolled to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Civil Security SC in a dead rubber clash held at the City League Football Complex today.
Both sides were playing their last game of the competition as they were relegated from the Champions League for next season.
The the notoriously dry City League pitch stuck to its monicker with conditions not being ideal for fast and fluid play. In a game where chances were few and far between, Matara City, the pre-game favourites to take home the 3 points looked the better side right from the onset.
The first chance of the game fell to the Matara side when a free kick on the edge of the box was saved at the near post.
They continued to bring on wave after wave of attack, especially down the right flank. Forward Prince Asamoah had a number of chances himself when Brayan Weerapulli crossed into the the box, only for the Nigerian to mistime his header.
Seconds later, Asamoah turned supplier when he put in a looping diagonal ball over the backline for Moses Frank, only for the forward to put his shot wide with just the keeper to beat.
Matara City finally broke the deadlock in the 38th minute when Asamoah put in a beautiful through pass to Frank, with the striker making no mistakes in slotting home.
The stroke of half time brought another significant moment however, as Matara City’s G.M.T. Dilantha was given a second booking and sent off for tugging the shirt of a Civil Security attacker during a counter attacking move.
Half time – Matara City 1 – 0 Civil Security
The second half was a completely different story as the Civil Security side seemed to be a completely changed outfit compared to that of the first half.
There was much more intensity in the play with the midfielders putting a lot more effort on opening up play and creating chances.
Skipper Charindu Sampath was the catalyst behind this new found drive and constantly caused trouble for the Matara City defenders. The nippy winger put in a delightful low cross to Priyadarshana around the fifty minute mark, only for him to make an air-shot from 6 yards.
Some good interplay between Sampath, Madusanka and Dilshan De Silva gave the Security team a number of chances, but unfortunately for them, their forwards could not convert.
Matara City SC started getting back into the game around the 65th minute when they finally started getting a grip of the midfield through Weerappulli & Alanka Nirvinda. They nearly doubled their lead in the 70 minute mark when Nirvinda picked up the ball at the half way line and dribbled past 4 players, only for his shot to fly just wide.
While both sides pushed hard to get the next goal, the ball spent a lot of time in the middle of the park in what was tense final quarter of the game.
Civil Security had one last clear cut chance when De Silva received a diagonal ball from the right side and fed it to Priyadarshana, who missed an absolute sitter from 4 yards out.
Matara City rounded off the game in the 90th minute with a counter attack, when a ball sent in from the right was bundled into the goal by Nirvinda under pressure from the Civil Services defence
Full time – Matara City 2 – 0 Civil Security
ThePapare.com Man of the Match – Prince Asamoah (Matara City)
Civil Security SC skipper Sampath said about the result: “We have to come back & we also have a few players injured, we will be a better outfit when they return. We missed chances todays and the other team scored theirs, that’s football.”
“We couldn’t score as much as we liked. Once we had a man sent off, we wanted to protect what we have. Our campaign ends here, so we plan to regroup and come forward next season to challenge for the title” said Matara City skipper Weerappuli.
Goal Scorers
Matara City – Moses Frank 38’, Alanka Nirvinda 89’Bookings
Matara City – G.M.T. Dilantha 30’ 38’ (Sent off for 2 Yellow Cards)
