Navy maintain place at the top

LAHORE - Mian Chunnu-born international midfielder and current Navy's skipper Nomi Martin Gill played pivotal part as the seamen still got hold of supremacy in the Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL).
The 58 matches of the PFF's blue riband event out of the total 182 matches were played prior to Ramzan ul Mubarak, 104 matches in between Eids, two religious festivals celebrated by Muslims. Twenty matches will be held after Eid ul Adha. In all, sixteen venues of eight cities are hosting the matches of top soccer show of Pakistan.
After completion of 162 matches, that saw 412 goals and eighth hat-tricks, Navy registered 54 points from 25 matches while other close-rivals KRL, Pakistan WAPDA and Pakistan Army, all three having four matches in hand, are from second to fourth respectively berth with 50, 48 and 47 points
"Having won the National Football Challenge Cup (NFCC) last year at Karachi, we are still looking for first national title. We were losing finalist in 46th National Championship at Lahore in 1999 while stood at 6th, 9th, 7th, 7th and fifth respectively in five PPFL from 2004-2008," said Khalid Zubair Shaukat who adopted fine game plan, efficiency as coach of the Navy team.
Khalid praised Nomi Martin for his sparkling hat-trick in the competition and said that team work and staminaful display allowed Navy to grip top slot at the moment. WAPDA's Arif Mehmood was the first to achieve three-goal feat on 26 July against at PMC Athletico Club Faisalabad, followed by two more against PIA and Pakistan Navy.
Navy's Nomi Martin Gill hit thrice against KESC at Islamabad's Naval Complex on August 7 while two PIA's players reached the honor of getting the feat are: Shakir Lashari v Nushki's Baloch FC and Zeeshan Ali vs Afghan FC. Infact, Nushki conceded three hat-tricks. HBL's Bilal Ahmed and KESC's Aurangzeb were others to smash past Nushki's defence with 3-goal spree. LINK