LAUTOKA remains the only unbeaten side in the Vodafone Premier after being held to a 1-all draw by western rivals Ba at Churchill Park last Sunday.
The lone VPL match failed to live up to expectation as past encounters but the both teams went home satisfied with a point each.
While the main focus was at Ratu Cakobau Park with the grand finale of the Vodafone Fiji FACT between Rewa and Labasa, close to 1500 crowd witnessed the battle of the two western giants who were also Fiji’s representative to the recent O-League.
Both teams remained scoreless at the breather.
The home team struck first through new kid Muni Sivam who’s shot from outside the box went through a wall of players to beat keeper Misiwani Nairube in the 71st minute.
But the visitors fought back to equalise with a well taken goal by another new name Amena Bola. His shot from outside the box dipped over Beniamino Mateinaqara to hit the back of the net.
Lautoka coach Kamal Swamy said his players were trying to get back its fitness level after a hectic O-League campaign which involved a lot of soccer and traveling.
“We used a couple of new players as some of our senior players are not available. But it’s a good work out for them playing against a Ba team who is also in a rebuilding phase.
“We need to get back to where we were during the O-League and that will require some good rest and rebuilding,” Swamy said.
Ba team manager Arvind Singh said his players deserved some credit in holding a good Lautoka team.
“You can see we have a lot of young players who we are giving some game time. It will take time and surely we will be up there where we should be,” Singh said.
