The deserted bench, after three of his players were disallowed participation in the Subroto Cup, was just another of those numerous pitfalls that came SK Bandopadhyay and his boys’ way. On Monday, when SAI (Kolkata) lifted the u-17 title of the tournament with a slice of luck, beating Mizoram through an extra-time spot-kick by Roikhia Nongtu, most other things were left behind.

The coach avoids talk of hardships and wants to lose himself with the players for once because he can recall too many for comfort, especially given the fact that they have lifted the title for the first time. Stern age tests chopping off half their force back in Kolkata was followed by the Subroto Cup organisers ruling three players-two from the first XI —out for various reasons. Tripura’s Ajay Jamatia and Orissa’s Sanatan Lower were left out in the interest of the team after the organizers thought SAI (Kolkata) had an outstation player too many which almost made them a national-level team. Bandopadhyay was robbed of second goalkeeper Goa’s Sandesh after the age tests here proved those in Kolkata wrong.

The coach didn’t look back towards his reserve bench despite key players like Ranjan Mistry picking up injuries and won the final living on the brink.

In the pre-quarterfinal league, SAI needed a win to stay alive after a loss to Chandigarh and a draw against Bengal. The boys won 2-1 over Goa to follow it up with a sleek 1-0 victory over Meghalaya in the quarter-final. For Bandopadhyay’s bunch, every moment was ‘tough’ but the role of luck could never be played down. “Luck took us to the title. The hurdles were too many and we lost confidence going into the pre-qarterfinal matches,” Bandopadhyay said.

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