St Andrew's (Bandra) triumphed in an ill-tempered encounter against MMK (Bandra), to lift the 11th Goan Sports Association (GSA) inter-collegiate football title at the GSA ground at Cross Maidan yesterday.


An MMK player (red) clashes with a St Andrews player during
yesterday's GSA inter-collegiate final. Pic/Atul Kamble

Referee Rahul D'Sa was forced to award four straight red cardsu00a0 during the 60-minute tie, that Andrew's edged 2-1.

The drama began few minutes after MMK's Zeeshan Shaik cancelled out Andrew's striker Dion Menezes' early strike.

MMK's Wayne Vaz was the first casualty. He was given his marching orders after he brought down Pratik Patil inside the box leading to a penalty. Skipper Pratik converted from the spot to put Andrew's ahead.

In the second half, Andrews were also reduced to 10 men after Reed Santos was sent off for a jab on an MMK defender.

The fact that the referee had to reduce both teams to nine men for the use of abusive language one minute from time, explains the heated and violent nature of the game.

MMK's Cletus Paul and Andrew's Mervin Stephen were the guilty parties.

Andrew's skipper Pratik said: "As the situation started getting rough our players lost control and started abusing. But I'm glad we won the title."

Losing skipper Nikhil D'Souza put the blame on the referee: "The first red was a wrong decision. The referee cost us the game."