Adair strikes as Bosco are dons again

The victorious Don Bosco (Matunga) team at Priyadarshini Park yesterday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Reigning champions Don Bosco High School (Matunga) extended their dominance in inter-school football with a 1-0 win over Bombay Scottish (Mahim) to clinch an unprecedented third consecutive boys U-16 Division-I first division title in the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) football tournament.

In a keenly-contested summit clash in testing ground conditions at Priyadarshini Park in Napean Sea Road on Tuesday, Adair D'Souza netted the lone goal of the final in the 19th minute to secure the win for the Bosco boys. The title clash promised much, considering the quality of both teams, but due to poor ground conditions - soggy and slippery due to rain - it delivered little.

In a cagey first half mostly confined to the midfield, there were very few scoring opportunities before a defensive lapse by Scottish allowed the Matunga lads to break the deadlock. A move down the left saw Adair latch on to the ball after some sloppy defending by Scottish, who failed to clear the danger.

Also Read: Scottish flourish to enter MSSA U-16 Div I summit clash

The striker hammered home a right-footer into the corner of the net for 1-0. "I give full credit to the entire squad for playing their part effectively in our title defence. Every player contributed. Had the ground conditions been better, the quality of football would have been top-notch," Don Bosco coach Leslie Machado told mid-day.

Bombay Scottish coach Fhad Ansari said his team missed out due to lack of training. "We have not been training for the last 15 days as the boys had their examinations. The ground conditions here were poor too," said Ansari.

Earlier, in the third-place match, Cambridge (Kandivli) shocked St Stanislaus (Bandra) 1-0 with Austin Gama netting the all-important winner in the second half.