The first event of the year was the Inter Hall Footer and NH as defending champions had pressure but were not considered in the limelight by the others notably RP which had hyped itself as the 'Dream Team'. We started slowly by drawing our first match against the pre tournament favs RP in a 1-1 draw. The good thing was that the NH back-four Thakkar, Ambarish, Khanna and Arup (MTech) were steay with Anshu doing good work under the bar. A new kid Kaustav was our trump card and much was expected of him. And finally up front we had the killer instinct of Imtiaz Ahmed. After the first match we defeated LLR 1-0 in a scrappy match. Midway thru the tournament the PG's under Abhijit Sarkar were the best team after they defeated the dream Team RP. Our last league match was with them and we struck our best form to beat them 2-0 and that too very convincingly. Now suddenly everybody was looking up at Nehru. Our defence was really strong and Imti was unstoppable up front. He along with Tapan was giving every defence a nightmare. In the semis we played the worst game of the tournament but nevertheless went ino an early lead courtsey, who else but Imti. thru some poor marking in the corner we conceded a goal in tthe dying minutes and the game went into a shootout. Imti scored first and Patel equalised. Then Dadu missed and Patel went into the lead. It was hen that Anshu brouught of some brilliant saves and stopped all the three kicks as Kaustav and Thakkar scored. Finally we won with one kick to spare and the star today was certainly Anshu. The poor show in the semis made us look up and we prepared ourselves for the final which was against the PG's, Although we had beaten them in the league they were really high on confidence after demolishing RK 3-0 in their semis. In the final we startted steadily and soon our defence was moving up causing pressure in their defence. But the PG's soon regrouped and were making good forays, with Abhijitda. In one such attack he moved clear and shot at the clear goal but from somewhere Ambarish stuck out his hand. All headsdrooped as they were awarded a penalty. Abhiji da was an expert on the spot kick and we were all surprised when he missed it and Nehru breathed a sigh of relief. Then the defence regrouped and once again the attack built up. Late in the first half we earned a free kick from striking distance. In our preparations for the final we had many variations for this and we were just thinking when khanna and Imti noticed a rare mistake by shantanuda the IIT keeper. It was only for a second and a quick fake and a hard low shot by imti hit the side of the net and the Nehru crowd erupted with joy. The PG's were stunnned as none had expected such a goal. The second half was keenly contested but our midfield of kaustav and shamik kept up the pressure and we didn't go defensive. Later tapan and imti made some great moves but were denied by some excellent keeping by their keeper. The PG's attacked relentlessly but we did not make the mistakes of previous years and keprt up our own attacks. We were rewarded for this and ultimately held on to our 1-0 lead to win the Inter Hall Footer for the second consecutive year. Imti by far was our player of the tournament and we also had fresh talent in Kaustav, Swagatam and Shouvik. However the one thing that always was steady was our Defence and the Nehru back four weathered every storm and marched to a memorable win under the leadership of Thakkar and Ambarish.


The Team...