Suva to sort out ‘camp issues’ after loss
Things are not going well in the Suva football camp. The revelation was made by coach Babs Khan after they suffered a 1-0 loss to Ezy Kool Nadi in their Digicel Premier League clash at Prince Charles Park, Nadi, yesterday . “Playing away from home is always tough but we won’t give any excuse since this is football,” Khan said. “We’ve to hit the drawing board. We should have played how we played in the second spell. We have some issues in camp which affected our performance.”
What happened: The hosts started strongly and pressured the Suva defence.
Continuous pressure paid dividend in the 19th minute when tireless striker Sakaraia Naisua jumped onto a loose pass and slotted the ball past Suva goalkeeper Emori Ragata. Halftime: Nadi 1-0 Suva.
In the second spell, Suva brought in Mohammed Ramzan, Waisea Navunigasau, Merrill Nand and Vanuatu rep Alex Samuel but the Nadi defence led by Vereti Dickson held on.
In the 89th minute referee Nishil Varman handed a red card to Nadi’s Ashneel Kumar for dangerous play on Suva’s Joeli Ranitu.
Comment: Nadi coach Shalen Lal said, “Congratulations to the boys for the win at home. We had to lift our game. We wanted a win and we did it.”
Nadi: Vereti Dickson, Josua Tawake, William Valentine, Ashneel Kumar, Christopher Kumar, Shivneel Pillay, Ame Votoniu, Tuba Batiratu, Napolioni Qasevakatini, Serevi Waqa, Sakaraia Naisua.
Suva: Emori Ragata, Meli Codro, Simione Nabenu, Remueru Tekiate, Kelvin Naidu, Iosefo Verevou, Ravinesh Karan Singh, Joeli Ranitu, Shahil Dave, Filipe Baravilala, Laisenia Naioko.