Never before has a young zone enjoyed life in the Super Nawettan as Brufut United are currently passing through.
The debutantes from little known background were added into the fold by the GFA Normalizing Committee only last July and in no time the decision galvanized a whole community of sleeping giants to take their rightful place in the national football family.
The quest for zonal status had been long and daunting, but when OB Conateh presided over an executive meeting in July and successfully pushed for the granting of Super Nawettan status to Brufut arguing that the community has convinced him to have talents and strong organizational skills, a whole town sprang to action to embrace the new recognition.
A new organizing committee was set up that quickly embarked on sensitization campaign and that attracted massive response from all ages who rallied around the new project.
Brufut players, who were scattered around other zones in search of zonal football glory returned home to answer the call of their birthplace while abundance of raw talents from the town’s 20 team Nawettan were scouted by a robust technical committee.
Meanwhile, an enthusiastic and formidable fans’ club was born, providing support and fanfare that spreads like bush fire every match.
Typical of newcomers, Brufut started modestly against Bakau, who took the lead in the first half but as unknown quantities Brufut’s unpredictability began to show in the second half when they came from behind to equalize their deficit against Bakau and came close to embarrassing their much experienced opponents.
The draw was perceived back home to mean a progressive march and when Gunjur came in the second match, Brufut received them on equal footing but being newcomers the players could not break the watertight defence of the Dabanani boys, whose frailties and lack of organization could have been punished by any experienced side.
In the end both sides fired blanks and Brufut penciled down another point.
Then came Brikama, the settlement who bragged about the first artificial pitch, and go by the name Sateba.
Being cousins of Brufut, they received a simple knock on the head and that was enough to confine them to a century of ridicule whenever football is talked about between inhabitants of the two towns.
Three points from Brikama and on a high, the boys headed for Manjai Wednesday to take on arch rival and noisy neighbours Sukuta.
This was earlier dubbed the match of the group for Brufut given the good showing of Sukuta, the first to grab six points and the top spot.
But as it turned out the Sukutarians were toppled from the top place with three goals to nil at half time and could only pull back a consolation earlier in the second half.
Three - One it ended with Brufut now sitting at the top of the table in group B with 8 points and most definitely qualified for the quarterfinals ahead of Friday’s final group match against underperformers Serekunda Central.
