The Northland Tailevu U19 youth side has created history after being crowned the champions of the Digicel U19 Youth League Southern Zone despite one match in hand.
This is the first time Northland Tailevu has qualified for the national under-19 playoffs after beating Nasinu 3-1 last Saturday.
An emotional head coach of Northland Tailevu, Kritesh Prasad with tears of joy said hard work paid off for the players.
“It was my dream to take the team to the national playoffs and I salute my boys for their hard work and commitment to the district,”
“This was not an easy journey but with the support of the parents and officials we have achieved what we aimed for a few years back,”
“We started our campaign a few years back with these bunch of players who started from under 16 and now we are bearing the fruit as they got more experience and exposure playing as a team,”
“The boys have been playing together since 2019 when we started playing in the Digicel U16 League so we created a pathway as some of them also played for the senior team,”
Prasad said it was a proud moment for Northland Tailevu.
“These boys have made us proud and now our target will be to win the national under-19 title for the first time as well,”
“We have a match in hand against Tailevu Naitasiri and will we will take it as our build-up for the playoffs,” said former Northland Tailevu rep
Meanwhile, in the last round of the Digicel U19 Youth Rewa defeated Tailevu Naitasiri 5-1 while Suva and Navua played to a two-all draw.
Northland Tailevu has been undefeated in the competition and sits on 25 points while defending champions Rewa sits in the second position with 23 points.
Suva finished third with 13 points, Nasinu on the fourth position with 11 points. Tailevu Naitasiri is on fifth spot with six points while Navua on the bottom of the table with four points.
