SANGAM World Cup champions Lautoka Sangam team stamped their mark in the Sangam Tournament in an unruly game marred by indiscipline from the visiting Hamilton aside by walking away winners 1-0.
Lautoka playing with mostly district reps were in control most of the time but a frustrated Hamilton player Krish Lingam resorted to swearing at the referee which resulted in a send-off and even then Lingam had his middle finger up in the air.
Referee Rakesh Burman had to call the police from the sideline to escort the player off the pitch after he intervened in another situation, 10 minutes after the sending off.
According to tournament director Balram Naicker, the officials met last night to decide if Lingam would be allowed to have any further part in the tournament.
Naicker said the tournament was of a very high standard and the referees were FIFA qualified, so players and management had to get their act together.
Lautoka coach Rajnesh Naicker said the win was a good start in the tough pool. “It was a very tough game. Hamilton is not an easy team. They have come and played here before but I give full credit to my boys who held their discipline even when faced with aggression,” Naicker said.
“We will now get ready to face Auckland tomorrow(today). My players were shown yellow cards as well and I don’t want cards marring our tournament.”
Hamilton captain Salesh Kumar said it was a very tough game as no team was willing to back off.
“As you can see, such situations often lead to frustration and this is what happened today but we will go back and advise the players to keep a cool head in future games as we need to win all our matches.”
Lautoka’s Alvin Avinesh was the hero for the Blues as he collected the ball inside the penalty box, controlled it and then shot it into the goal.
Results
Suva 2 – Ba 0
Middlemore 1 – Nalovo 0
Nadi 1- Malolo 0
Salovi 2 – Vitogo 0
Rifle Range 0 – Labasa 0
Lomolomo 2 – Vatiyaka 0
Lautoka 1-Hamilton 0
