Ratnam SC a force to be reckoned with
With a history of 66 years Ratnam Football Club, Kotahena won the Colombo Football League’s Lawrence Fernando Memorial Trophy Gold Cup defeating new Star SC Panadura 4-0 at the CR and FC Grounds. Ratnam FC holds a proud record of winning every first class football tournament in Sri Lanka. They have won the FA Cup six times (2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2009), Premier League five times (1998, 2000, 2007 2008 and 2012) and Champion of Champions tournament in 2004. According to Herley Silvera, President of the club Ratnam FC had produced over 35 players who had brought fame to the country at international level.
Eight teams locked horns at this edition of the Gold Cup semi-finals where Ratnams beat Kirulapone United by 4 goals to 1 while in the second semi-final New Star SC, Panadura defeated Old Bens 4-0 to enter the finals. Witnessed by a large crowd the final match got off to a flying start as both side exhibited top class soccer and in the 39th minute Shiraz Cader netted the first goal which took Ratnam to a led 1-0 at the first half. With cross over in the second half Ratnam went on a goal scoring spree to score three goals as Panadura failed to continue their good work which they worked off in the first half. A.M. Akeel netted two goals in the 57th and 78th minutes while the other goal was scored by Sasanka Jayasekera.
In this tournament organised by Colombo Football League the eight top seeded teams of the affiliated 24 sports clubs were selected to play. Teams that were selected to play were Ratnam SC, New Star SC Panadura, Old Bens SC. Old Wesleyites SC, Sunny Mount SC, Kollons SC, Everready SC and Kirullapone United SC. Ratnam SC who were out of action for one year due to lack of a sponsor found way to continue playing due to the untiring efforts of their president who sponsored the team. Out of the ten Gold Cup tournaments Ratnam had won nine times while Renown SC were the other winner. Renown kept away from this year’s event as they took part in the city league. The champion team Ratnam was led by Joseph Shehan Silvera.