Led by striker Xavier Vijaykumar, the Aircraftmen leave the City on Sunday with the sole aim of returning to the mainstream of Indian football.
The second division will be played in two venues -- Pune and Kolhapur -- with six teams competing at each centre. Three teams from each group will qualify for the Super League, which will be played in Guwahati. The top four teams will earn promotion to the I-League first division.
Pitted along with ONGC, SBT, Vasco, Chirag United and the newly formed Pune Football Club, HASC have their task cut out. Aircaftmen’s talisman and skipper Xavier was candid while saying, “We have to win at least three matches to get to the Super League. Once we enter the Super Six stage, I can’t see any reason why we can’t make it to the top four.”
Striker missed
Xavier believes HASC have it in them to make it to the big league, where they last played in 2006-07. “Last season, we were depleted because of the absence of quality strikers. Injuries to key players didn’t help our cause either. We are beginning afresh this season. We have recruited a new striker from Nigeria in Martin Frederick, as well as a couple of local players in Dada Nabil (son of coach Dada Peer) and Pradeep. I hope that adds more teeth to our attack.”
It was a sentiment echoed by coach Manivannan. “Our defence was not that bad. But we failed to score as we didn’t have a solid striker who could make inroads into the opposition camp. Our chances have brightened with the arrival of Frederick, whose shooting prowess is excellent”.
In the run-up to the tournament, HASC -- the reigning Super Division champions -- played a couple of practice games. “Since our ground is being renovated, we played against teams like MEG and ASC in their grounds. That helped us a lot in assessing players’ fitness and form,” added Xavier.
While ruling out fitness concerns to any of the players, Xavier was quite apprehensive of the ground conditions. “Most of us are playing in Pune for the first time. We are not under-estimating any opponent. However, if we win the first two matches, half the job is done.”
Apart from the inclusion of three new faces, HASC’s line up remains more or less the same with both Nigerian defenders Femi Adeola and Alesh Shamaki being retained. Only four players -- Xavier, Rajendra Prasad, Sunil and Murali -- are employed with HASC.
Veteran Gumpe Rime will have to handle more responsibility under the bar in the absence of Balaji, who moved to Pune FC along with striker Kuttymani. Coach Manivannan downplayed Balaji’s absence. “I don’t think it will burden Gumpe too much. Anyway, we have Edwin as a back-up.”
HASC begin their campaign against hosts Pune FC on March 26.
