Traditional rivals Royal College and S.Thomas’ College go head to head on the 4th of November at the CR & FC Grounds in the Royal-Thomian Blue Derby Encounter.
Royal come into the game as overwhelming favourites with a dominant winning streak broken only in 2009 by the Ashwin Dias led Thomians.
One of the biggest events in the Football calendar, the Blue Derby will take place for the 23rd time this week with Royal College being nearly invincible in this fixture.
Season Thus Far
The Reid Avenue lads come into this game on the back of a solid season where they performed reasonably well, despite missing talisman Naveen Jude in some key games.
The Royalists started off their season with victory in the Divisional tournament where they defeated Ananda College on penalties in the final. They didn’t take part in the Zonal tournament however, due to short comings on the part of the organizers.
They also took part in the Kotmale U19 Schools’ Football Championship and did well, missing out to the mighty St. Henry’s College (Lost 2-0) & Hameed Al Husseine College (Lost 2-1) group stages.
Royal won against Maliyadeva College (3-0) and Ananda College (5-0) while recording a draw against traditional rivals, Trinity College (1-1) & Rahula College (2-2).
Royal College next went on to bag a title at the Zahira Super 16 Soccer Sevens, where they emerged Plate winners, defeating St. Joseph’s College, Colombo on penalties.
Royal College also opened their ‘A’ Division title pursuit recently with a 2-2 stalemate at St. Peter’s College. Their last game before the Royal-Thomian was the away leg of the Albert Edirisinghe Trophy versus Mahinda College, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
S. Thomas’ College on the other hand emerged winners of their Divisional tournament but lost out in the Zonals at the semi-final stage of the Cup segment.
The side from the School by the Sea failed in their bid to qualify for the knockout stages of the Kotmale U19 Schools’ Football Championship as their positive results against Lumbini College, Sri Pada College (6-1), Wesley College (1-0) & Dharmaraja College (1-1) were overshadowed by the defeats against Zahira College (7-0) and St. Joseph Vaz College (2-0), which consigned them to third place in Group B.
Their pre Roy-Tho preparations included a friendly versus Ananda College, where they emerged 2-1 winners and the Trinity-Thomian, where they held on to share the spoils.
Main Men
Both sides have plenty of talent on offer but Royal certainly have the edge in terms of big names. The talismanic Naveen Jude of Sri Lanka U19 and Java Lane fame is undoubtedly their biggest threat and has been tormenting Thomian defences for the last three years.
He is set to be supported by his Skipper and fellow Sri Lanka Youth cap, Chathura Avishka, who is set to anchor the midfield.
For S. Thomas’, the burden will certainly fall on midfielder Jiovani Kanagasundaram and skipper Dion Dias.
At the back, Seshan Mathangaweera is bound to have his hands full and will be vital in terms of holding off the Royal onslaught.
Young talent
The young players coming through the ranks are set to have a very big say, for the school by the Sea in particular, with little-known 15 year-old Senal De Alwis set to be a key player, given his brilliant performance versus Trinity College last month. Similarly, the likes of Shevaan Ebenezer and Dinil Gonawela are also youngsters to look out for.
For Royal, the likes of Afridi Hossain, Sakun Divyanga & Sithum Vidanagamage are players to watch with Divyanga to play his second Blue derby after featuring last year.
Speaking to ThePapare.Com, Thomian Skipper Dias said;
“The team has been preparing very hard and I’m sure the likes of Shannon Ebenezer and Senal De Alwis, both 15, will step up and play well. We analysed our mistakes from the Trinity game and have been working on them over the last couple of weeks. Also I’d like to wish Chathura and his side the very best for the game.”
S.Thomas’ College Squad
Dion Dias (c) – Seshan Mathangaweera – Evan De Silva – Tharik Jawahir –Tharindu Jayasekara – Sasika Jayasuriya – Jiovani Kanagasundaram – Jony Selvakumar – Malik Azeez – R. Vengadesh – Shannon Ebeneezer – Arshad Hameem – Marikkar – Jaythaka De Silva – Afkar Laffar – Dirk Jansen –Senal De Alwis – Shevaan Ebeneezer – Dinil Gonawela
Royal Skipper Chathura said;
Preparations have been good this year. The team has been improving day by day and we expect to reach peak performance on the day. We also have a good balance between experienced players and new blood and will use that to our advantage. The Thomians have always given us a good fight every year although they have won the derby only once. I want to wish Dion and his team best of luck. May the best team win.
Royal College Squad
Chathura Avishka (C) – Naveen Jude – Sakun Divyanga – Suhaib Muzammil – Fayard Farmis – Afridi Hussain – Athif Munas – Humaid Hilmy – Kolitha Hansajith – Sithum Vidanagamage – Harindu Rangajith – Ashraff Ali – Mohammed Fazlonn – Sulaiman Nagim – Aaqil Yusoof – Haathim Munas – Ahmed Mushtaq – Shakeed Yahiya – Amaan Azver – M. Infaas – Ranjan Gogulandas
