Jewel Star Club players at a practice session at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati on Friday. Picture by SH Patgiri

Guwahati, June 10: Having made it to the Guwahati Sports Association?s Super division football league only two years back, Jewel Star Club are preparing to pose a major challenge to the big guns ? Assam Police Blues, ASEB SC and NF Railway SA.

Rejuvenating the team with the induction of at least seven new faces, coach Kishore Chetri is confident of booking a place for the team among the top four in the league starting July 19. ?Besides, we plan to create a niche for ourselves in the state arena with a young squad in the forthcoming season,? Chetri said.

The entire Jewel Star squad in the Super League this time will comprise ?young and energetic teenagers who are raring to go,? said Chetri. ?We will field youngsters. Though they are not much experienced, they are gutsy and energetic and have the match-winning temperament which I have observed during the past 20 days of practice.?

The club has recruited two under-21 state players from Nagaland and another stopper from Orissa who was a Sports Authority of India trainee the-re. Moreover, about six pla-yers of the disbanded Willia-mson Magor Football Academy have also signed up with the club.

However, the club is not going to field veterans Argha Ram Boro and Sandipan Chakraborty, a move that may weaken the defence. ?Argha has not shown any interest in playing and Sandipan, an employee of the State Bank of In-dia, has been transferred,? the coach said. Stopper Hemant Kishan has signed up with Assam Rifles.

Chetri feels the new defence line will, however, be no pushover ?as the Orissa and Nagaland recruits are promising defenders though not as experienced as Sandipan or Argha?.

?Besides, we have two of the best and most agile custodians in the state. It is not so easy to get through when Richard and Raman Basumatary are guarding the woodwork,? the coach said.

The club may also miss the services of seasoned Durga Chetri and Charan Thapa as both have not been showing much interest in playing, the coach said, adding both were bunking training sessions almost everyday. Medio Rajesh Chetri has also left the club to join Gorkha Regiment.

Barring the defence line, there will be no worries for Chetri as the forward and midfield have been furthered strengthened with the recruits. ?The new boys are very hard working and learning quite fast. The only shortcoming on their part is lack of experience in the Guwahati arena which, I feel, they will be able to adopt very soon,? Chetri said.

Rajesh Das of City Police and Manjit Brahma of Williamson Magor Academy have joined the ranks with Rahazuddin Ahmed and Utpal Das in the forward line while the other recruits are mostly medios.