Singh’s Rental Lautoka’s football victory at the Battle of the Giants inspired the Baby Blues to score an upset 5-4 win (penalty shootouts) over Labasa Primary School at the ANZ Stadium, Suva, yesterday.

This was confirmed yesterday by jubilant coach Naveen Kumar as they are now crowned the 2016

Courts Inter-District Championship’s primary schools champions.

“Our senior team came and encouraged the players before the final,” he said.

“That really boosted the team’s morale. They even sponsored the meals for the boys and the boys have been well-fed.”

Kumar said the Lautoka Football Association (LFA) played a big part in the Baby Blues IDC campaign.

“They (LFA) took good care of the Baby Blues since day one. In terms of the nutrients part, the boys were given proper meals.”

The Baby Blues lost their opening game at the IDC but they managed to pick up their momentum towards the crucial stage of the tournament.

“With all the support, the boys knew that the onus was on them to win. We are now working on their fitness because we are going to play in the Fiji Primary Schools championship next.”

What happened: Going into the final as the defending champions, Labasa started well as they controlled the early parts of the game. The Ocean Waters sponsored Lautoka defenders managed to keep their discipline in the first 20 minutes of the final.

The Northerners drew first blood in the 20th minute from a welldrilled shot by Jacob Singh just outside Lautoka’s box.

Halftime: Lautoka 0-1 Labasa

A fired-up Baby Blues came back strongly and mounted pressure on Labasa as they were searching for an equaliser. They played counter attacking football and kept on with their attacks.

The move paid off as a quick counter attack saw Lautoka being awarded a free kick just a few metres away from the Labasa goal mouth.

Forward Kaisa Waqa made no mistake with a brilliant place kick to level the score 1-1 in the 45th minute.

The scores remained at 1-1 after two spells of extra time. During the penalty shootout, Lautoka scored from their five attempts while Labasa missed one of their attempts taken by Kaushal Chand.

Big Play: Nilesh Prasad converting the crucial fifth penalty to seal the win.

Comments: Labasa coach Amitesh

Prasad said: “The boys played really well but it wasn’t our day today.

We will go back to Labasa and organise the team to come firing again after next week in the Fiji Primary Schools IDC tournament. I am so proud of the boys despite the injuries they are able to do wonders on the pitch”.

Edited by Naisa Koroi

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