The newly promoted Navua football side won the hearts of many fans despite their 1-2 loss against Nadi in the Vodafone Premier League fixture at Uprising Sports Complex on Sunday.
More than thousand fans braved the wet weather to witness their team play the opener at home and were full of smile despite the loss as Navua made a return to the premier division after lapse of five years.
Navua started the match confidently and kept pressure on the Nadi defence but experience goalkeeper Vereti Dickson denied the Anaconda Town boys the opener.
Nadi took the lead in the 28th minute with the boots of striker Rusiate Matererenga who slotted a powerful shot from just outside the penalty box which caught Navua goalkeeper Rusiate Amasio flat- footed.
A goal down, the Navua side kept the momentum and displaed constructive football but lack of experience took the match into the breather with Nadi leading 1-0.
The second half was again Navua all over but lack of finishing and experience from the Nadi defence stopped the Navua strikers from the equalizer.
It was the 84th minute when striker Taniela Rakariva found the net after a blunder by Nadi defence which sent the Navua fans in jubilation.
The Navua celebration did not last long as Matarerenga scored the winner in the three minutes of injury time with powerfull header from inside the penalty boss.
Despite the loss Navua coach Mohammed Shafil was impressed with his side’s performance.
“I am really happy with the way the boys played though it was a last minute goal which made us loose the match but I really proud of my team.”
‘Nadi was a better and experience team and this was our first match with a very young squad and we hope to continue this and I have trust in my boys that they will improve game by game, “said Shafil
Navua will travel to north this Saturday and face Labasa at Subrail Park in its second match.
Shafil said they would prepare well to face Labasa.
“We know Labasa is a good team despite their loss to Suva but we will work on our weakness and will keep the same team which played today (Sunday).
Nadi coach Kamal Swamy said they had three points which was good enough but he had tom work on the fitness level of the players.
‘Looking at the fitness level of our players it is really down we just trained one week together as number of players were not coming for training, “said Swamy
Swamy praised the effort of Navua team.
“Navua is a good team and very fit and gave us a very tough time but we will be on break for few weeks and I am sure we will get better in our next game,”said Swamy.
