Union Bank of India’s young guns are Premier Division champs

The victorious UBI team with the winner’s trophy

Union Bank of India clinched the Premier Corporate Division title in the Mumbai Football Association (MFA) League after a 2-0 win in their last league match against HDFC Bank at the Neville D'Souza ground, Bandra on Sunday.

Having maintained an unbeaten record with eight wins and two draws to their credit, UBI finished with a tally of 26 points, the same as Indian Navy, who were also unbeaten in the 11-team league. However, UBI enjoyed a better goal-difference of plus 20 (GF 29, GA 9) as compared to Navy plus 17 (GF 21, GA 4), and emerged champions.

Elvin Fernandes (23rd minute) and Brandon Fernandes (49th) scored for UBI in their last league encounter against HDFC Bank.

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Coach Ryan D'Souza, a former Jr India international, gave full credit to his young team, most of whom are newcomers. "Building a team from scratch every year is a tough task. The biggest challenges we faced was learning to work together with this new set of players," D'Souza told mid-day.

"Navy were our toughest opponent. And I was very proud to see the way our young guns - mostly 21 or 22 years old - held their much tougher and senior navy counterparts to a 2-2 draw. That was the clincher for us," added D'Souza, who has also been the assistant coach of the Maharashtra team.