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In the last I-League game of the season, DSK Shivajians FC take on the newcomers from the north, Minerva Punjab FC at the Balewadi Stadium tomorrow, Sunday, April 30.
A philosophy of attacking football backed by youthful exuberance in terms of the teams that has played, DSK Shivajians first team manager Dave Rogers find his team in a comfortable seventh position in the I-League table with 17 points from as many games. These performances have seen DSK Shivajians qualify for the Federation Cup 2017 as well, to be held in May 2017.
While these numbers look solid, Dave formerly in charge of the DSK Shivajians Academy, has also given a chance to a fair number of Under-22 players over the course of the season, with many regulars in the First Team falling under that category. He will, however, be without a few of his Young Boys as they have been deputed to the U-18 side who are playing the Final Round of the U-18 I-League in Kolkata.
While they’ve only met once in the I-League so far, both sides have run into each other, almost routinely, meeting each other in the Durand Cup and multiple times in the DSK Cup. The last time the two sides met, however, it finished 0-0 with neither team able to capitalise on their chances.
“If you take a look at the stats, we’ve been fairly consistent with our performances, and we’ve been top of the league in quite a few of those stats. We’ve had one or two bad days coupled with an awful lot of injuries, and a few suspensions too. Mostly though, we’ve been consistent and we’ve done it with the kids too,” opined John Andrews, DSK Shivajians assistant manager on the how his team has fared throughout the I-League.
“Minerva Punjab have caused a lot of teams a lot of problems throughout the season, and we’ll need to be completely focused on them right now, rather than looking forward to the Federation Cup,” he signed off.
The Match is to be played on Sunday, April 30 at 4:30pm at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune and will be telecast LIVE on TEN 2.
