LAUTOKA END 20-YEAR DROUGHT AT IDC

Lautoka broke a 20-year drought in the IDC when it beat Ba 2-0 in a toughly-contested and incident-packed final to hoist the Lloyd Fairbrother Cup at their home ground, Churchill Park last night (October 10).

The match started brightly until Ba’s Kiniviliame Naika was red-carded for a foul early in the first half.

It took the home side midway into the second spell before it finally broke the tight Ba defence with a goal to star midfielder Jone Vono Junior for a 1-0 lead.

Lautoka’s cheers quickly turned to dismay as Vono was issued with his second yellow card after taking off his jersey while celebrating his goal.

With both teams down to 10-men the match was still balanced on a knife-edge, but minutes later Ba goalie Isikeli Seva, dashed all hopes of a comeback for the “Men in Black” when he headbutted Lautoka’s Australian import Nicholas Marinos.

Marinos was stretchered off the field with a head wound and Seva was shown the red card and the Blues awarded a penalty.

Penalty specialist Alvin Avinesh cemented the home side’s win when he beat replacement ‘keeper Laisenia Tuba with his spot kick.

The goal capped a superb tournament for Avinesh who was later crowned IDC Player of the Tournament and became the inaugural recipient of the Fiji FA New Find of the Year award.

Elsewhere, Tailevu Naitasiri striker Zayeed Zuleman was the toast for his side when he scored the golden goal in extra-time against Seaqaqa to help his side hoist the IDC Premier Division title.

Zuleman also scored his side’s first goal in the first half of normal time.

In the secondary schools final Apisalome Turuva gave DAV Suva a memorable victory as his goals saw the side beat Tilak High 3-1 in the final yesterday.

The Rewa district rep managed a goal in each half to give the Nabua-based school a historic win at the tournament.

It is after 25 years that the school won the tournament.

Turuva was bought back into the DAV side after Rewa was bundled out in pool play in the Super Premier division. His second goal was a classic as he rifled in a powerful shot which left the Tilak defence and goalkeeper sprawling.

And Ba was in a class of its own as it took out the Inter-District primary school title beating Labasa 4-1 on penalty kicks.

The youngsters, who were favourites from Day One to win the grade, kept their composure and managed to outwit the junior Babasiga Lions in the tournament.