The Brotherhood Derby: A game with an ecstatic beginning, intense physicality, missed chances and a victory for the boys from Randles.

Kingswood retained the Kenneth M. De Lanerolle Memorial Shield as they squared off against Wesley College, who met for the 4th edition of this battle on the 5th of October at Racecourse International Stadium.

Leading up to The Brotherhood Derby, Kingswood were considered as heavy favourites to retain the shield. Having won the previous three encounters and holding the Central Province football championship at the Provincial tournament taking place just a few weeks before. Wesley, on the other hand were not to be written off completely as they too consisted of one of the front running outfits in Sri Lanka Schools Football.
In the start, Wesley came out all guns blazing, with a game plan to maintain as much possession as they could, hoping to drown out the players from Kingswood a chance to go at goal throughout the game. Bagging the ball as much as they could, Wesley made it clear that they were going to work harder than Kingswood throughout this encounter.

Kingswood however, took a more conserved approach at the start, not fighting for the ball too hard, backing their abilities to score as they knew what they were capable of when they did gain possession.

Wesley took a few attacking jabs at Kingswood’s defense to no avail. They kept on attacking and high pressing the Kingswood defensive line, drawing their players forward. In the process of these jabs, the 11 players in blue were drawn towards the opposition’s box and seemed to forget that they too, needed to defend.

Within 50 seconds, Kingswood conceded a freekick just 5 meters outside their box. Wesley however could not convert this into a goal as a miscalculated kick sent the ball sailing over the post. Kingswood’s goalie wasted no time taking the goal kick. After a few scrimmages for the ball, Kingswood had possession of the ball up the center where their forwards made a quick break for goal and lo and behold, after a combination of a brilliant kick forward and a sniping run by Mohomed Ishfaq, setting up a beatiful cross for Umar Shareef who added the finishing touches with a perfectly executed header, Kingswood were up 1-nil just 2 minutes into the game.

Despite this brilliant attack by Kingswood in the opening minutes, it was a toil for both teams for the rest of the game, both creating a ton of opportunities but none of them adding any more goals to their scoreboards.

Wesley held possession for the majority of the game and continued to attack effectively, but they were unable to generate the final momentum needed to connect the ball into the net. They resorted to taking long-distance shots as they could not find their way into the Kingswood box and at times took a few uncertain long-range attempts at goal.

Kingswood also continued to create opportunities in a physical battle with the Wesley players. Wesley kept fighting till the very end, putting in diving tackles to keep the ball away from them, resulting in Kingswood’s main struggle of the game: holding on to the ball. When they did get a feel for the ball, chances were created, but again they too were unable to finish. Kingswood’s wingers and forwards played the ball into Wesley’s box quite nicely on several occasions, but the striker who got the last touch seemed to make a fumble out of it.

This encounter was quite the physical one, with yellow cards being handed out on a few occasions for tackles made. Then again, we all expect a bit of physicality and banter in these Derby games now, don’t we?

One thing to notice throughout the game was the spirit of sportsmanship between these two colleges. Players from both sides had massive respect for each other and were quick to tend to players who went down on the field. No matter the colour of the jersey.

The game only consisted of two 30-minute halves, adding up to 60 minutes of total football for the Kenneth M. De Lanerolle Memorial Shield. After the final whistle blew, it was all smiles and celebrations for the Kingswood Camp and quite the opposite for Wesley as they fell agonizingly short in yet another encounter in The Brotherhood Derby.

All in all, the encounter was an evenly poised one. An early surge from Umar Shareef and Mohomed Ishfaq opened the scoring for Kingswood and throughout the rest of the 60 minutes, the scores stayed the same.

That’s all The Brotherhood Derby had to offer: an ecstatic beginning, intense physicality, missed chances and a victory for the boys from Randles at the final whistle.