Haritha Gajanayaka scored a brace as the Reid Avenue boys punished the Thomians for their mistakes and wasted opportunities romping to a resounding 3-0 win in the 21st Blue Derby.
Royal skipper scored the opener when he headed in after Dinura Gunawardena’s save rebounded at him. Minutes later he doubled the lead pouncing on a miss-communication between Dinura and Avantha Elapata for an easy tap in. Insaaf Iyoob added the third early in the second half taking advantage of poor defending by Hadhi Jawahir.
Both sides met each other midyear in the Kotmale Chox Schools U19 Tournament where Royal edged out the Thomians 1-0 in the dying stages, where Deshan Gonawala missed a host of opportunities for the school by the sea. Both sides were on a high with Royal on the back of a 3-0 aggregate win over Mahinda College for the Albert Edirisinghe Trophy while the Thomians crushed Trinity 4-1, with Gonawala scoring a hat-trick.
The visitors started off in threatening fashion with quick one two football and had the early chance when a Yohan Mendis’ shot skimmed the crossbar for a goal kick after Akhil Fernando put him through on goal. Then Gonawala brushed off two defenders and cut across the penalty area but his effort was wide and was a shadow of himself from the Trinity match throughout the 90 minutes.
Royal went on the counter and Jawahir who had a horror evening. He made his first mistake going for a header which he couldn’t win, let in Sajid Haseemdeen whose fierce shot was palmed by Dinura but had Haritha heading in to an empty goal from close range.
Even after going a goal down S.Thomas’ kept on their positive start and almost equalized when Dion Dias dispossessed Sajid and sent in a cross for Qaeed Huzair but his effort went past the upright. For Royal it was their work horse Haritha who was creating trouble for the Thomian defense and in one such occasion his effort hit the side netting from an acute angle.
Half an hour in Haritha took the wind out of the sails for the Thomians as he pounced on a horrible mix-up between Thomian skipper Avantha Elapata and Dinura to round of the goalkeeper to tap into the goal in the 3th minute.
Avantha called the keeper to collect the ball which was on the edge of the box for which Dinura was not interested and his stop start approach left neither on the ball and Haritha took the mickey out of them.
Just before halftime the Thomians almost pegged a goal back when Akhil Fernando sent Yohan Mendis through with a delightful through-ball but his shot was palmed away for a corner by Mushtaq Ramzi.
Seconds into the second half visitors had another chance when Dion Dias crossed the ball into the six yard box but Yohan Mendis completely missed the ball from close range.
Royal’s third goal was all about strength and desire as Insaaf Iyoob showed great strength to hold off Jawahir who was more interested in having a wrestling match than looking at the ball to clear the lines and Iyoob cut past two defenders and crashed the ball into the roof of the net making it 3-0.
Naveen Jude almost made it 4-0 when his sublime effort from 20 yards out crashed against the crossbar and out for a goal kick. As the game went on the lack of fitness from both sides showed with players cramping thus neither side threatened in the latter half of the match.
