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Sports

Renown shot down on penalty shoot-out
By M. Shamil Amit
Ratnam SC clinched the Sharp FA Cup when they defeated defending champs Renown SC by 5-3 in a thrilling final played at the Sugathadasa Stadium which was decided by penalty shoot outs after the match ended on one all at full time plus the extra 30 minutes of play. The tournament was organized by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka and sponsored for the third successive year by Brown & Company. This is the second time Ratnam SC laid their hands in the FA Cup having earlier won it ten years ago.

Nevertheless it was a fitting finale with the spectators getting their moneys worth though both the sides missing many opportunities of scoring goals and pulling the game in their favour. At the end it was the goal keeping of Ratnams Junaideen Harisdeen that brought victory to them when he blocked the shot at goal off the boot of Renown's M.S.P. Perera.

The game began at a hot pace with both the teams attacking but, none were able to get past the respective goalies. Ratnam SC drew first blood in the 19th minute of the first half when skipper and right inside Rawmey Mohideen stunned Renown SC goalkeeper with a bullet like kick to take the lead. Immediately after that Renown SC had a chance of equalising, but their right extreme Surendran's kick at goal went astray.

The ding dong battle between two top teams from Kotahena went on, but there were many chances of scoring missed. Ratnam SC had an opportunity of increasing their lead but skipper Rawmey faltered. For Renown SC the culprit was their left extreme Niroshan Abeysekera who missed two sitters, having only to beat the goalie. On one occasion he had plenty of time. With no more scoring lemons was taken with Ratnam SC leading 1-0.

Resuming in the second half the game turned rough with players going for the man rather than the ball. And in the third minute Renown SC got an easy chance of equalising when they were offered a penalty due to the rough play of their opponents, but Ratnam's goal keeper Harisdeen had a clean eye to see that the ball did not pass him. The game got more rough and tough and with only 15 minutes left for full time.

Renown's left inside Chryshantha Abeysekera was shown the red flag and sent out by referee G.C.A. de Silva as a result they had to play the game with only ten players. But they kept on fighting gallantly to make holes in their opponents defence and succeeded to get another penalty in almost the in last minute of the game. But this time Priyantha made no mistake to see them make it level at the long whistle.

The game went into sudden death in the 30 minutes play and the side scoring first declared winners. As before the game went the rough way and this time Ratnam's Jeewantha Prasad was sent out for rough play and neither of the teams were able to make any scoring.

With the match to be decided on penalty shoot outs Ratnam SC succeeded with skipper Rawmey Mohideen, Fasul Rahuman, W.A.L.T. Rangana, M.N.M. Nilamdeen and W.A.A. Rangana scoring for the winners and M.K.J. Priyantha, M.V. Baskaran, N. Abeysekera scoring for the losers.

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