Ancheri strike stuns Salgaocar

Ancheri strike stuns Salgaocar
Agencies

Margao, December 15: A second half injury-time goal by Jo Paul Anchery enabled FC Kochin begin their camapign with a 3-2 win over hosts Salgoacar SC and gain full points in a National Football League match being played at Nehru Stadium, Fatodra here on Friday.

Liberian recruit Sunday Seah in the 53rd minute, IM Vijayan in the 81st minute and Jo Paul Anchery in the 90th minute scored for FC Kochin while Dennis Cabral in 45th minute and Climax Lorence in the 82 minutes scored for Salgoacar.

In an evenly contested second half when FC Kochin coach Sridharan changed the strategy replacing goalkeeper Sunday Seah with defender Dinesh Nair and Sunday was taken as striker, who changed the complexion of the game completly.

Trailing by a goal in the first half Sunday restored the parity in the 53rd minute when IM Vijayan’s free kick shot slipped from the hands of Salgoacar goalkeeper, Sunday who was near by pounced upon the opportunity and placed the ball into the net 1-1.

Inspired by the eqaliser, Kochin played vigorously and consolidated their lead in the 81st minute through IM Vijayan, whose carpet drive shot found the net off a pass from Sunday 2-1 a minute later Salgoacar’s Climax Lorence level the score 2-2 off a penalty award. Salgoacar were awarded a spot kick when Kochin’s goalkeeper Dinesh Nair brought down Denis Cabral inside the penatly area. Climax made no mistake to convert it into goal 2-2.

East Bengal prevail
CALCUTTA: Title aspirants East Bengal began their fifth National Football League campaign in style with a fluent 2-0 victory over Tollygunge Aggragami here on Friday.

Captain Bijen Singh and medio Suley Mussah struck for the glamour club capitalising on defensive lapses in a rather lacklustre match at the Rabindra Sarovar stadium.

After the initial rustiness, the local giants fired the first salvo in the 26th minute of the opening session when the nippy Bijen Singh slammed the ball in from inside the box following a measured pass from defender Sur Kumar Singh.

Leading by a solitary goal at the interval, East Bengal stepped up the pace of the game after the breather and managed to consolidate their position in the 52nd minute when the hard-working Suley Mussah tapped the ball in from close to the goalmouth off a Melee.

The red and yellow brigade could have won by a bigger margin had their forwards not frittered away a few scoring opportunities that came their way in both the sessions.

Tollygunge Aggragami coach Amal Dutta, known for his ultra defensive strategy, strengthened the forward line in the second half to try and put pressure on their opponents but the East Bengal defenders were equal to the task.

Both the teams, who have not played competitive soccer for some time now, appeared a little rusty and failed to live upto the expections in their inaugural encounter watched by about 20,000 spectators.

East Bengal could have opened their account as early as the ninth minute of the contest but were unlucky to see defender Jackson Agaypong’s header sail over the crosspiece by a narrow margin following a measured flagkick by Mussah.A few minutes later a Dipendu Biswas header again flew over the crosspiece much to the dismay of his teammates with none of the Tollygunge defenders being in position.

Although East Bengal enjoyed territorial advantage for most part of the encounter, their two strikers Bijen Singh and Dipendu Biswas did not really combine well while the midfielders also left much to be desired.

The Tollygunge fowardline comprising Abdul Latif Sereki and Mohammed Qizar could not really make much of an impact against the strong East Bengal defence.Tollygunge could penetrate the rival defence only on acouple of occasions but failed to get their acts together inside the box as they made the mistake of latching on to the ball for much too long.