Salian ’tricks for Customs

Salian struck in the very fifth minute with a well taken free-kick that dipped and swerved over goalkeeper Shibu Shanmugam,who had a poor day under the bar. Salian added the second with an easy tap in after Shanmugam failed to cut off Monish Bhambre’s floater from the right in the 19th minute. That mistake forced coach Francis Fernandes to replace Shanmugam with Raghuvir Khanolkar.

Central Railway trailing by the two first half goals produced an aggressive display in the second session to put pressure on the rival defenders who panicked and conceded two soft goals.

In the 63rd minute Prabash Janardhan’s 20-yard free-kick beat goalkeeper Lihaz Koya but crashed into the near upright and before the Customs defenders could react to avert danger Abhishek Yadav darted in to guide the ball home. Central drew level in the 74th minute when Shafique Shaikh capitalized on a weak defensive clearance to fire in left-footed half-volley past the despairing dive of Koya.

However,Salian took advantage of Sagar Amin backpass to goalkeeper Khanolkar to score the third goal and complete his feat in the 84th minute. With his speed he chased the ball and managed to take it from the goalkeeper before coolly placing it into an empty goal to bring back the smile on his coach Conrad Pereira and his teammates. This was the first win for Customs who had drawn the earlier two games,while suffered their third defeat in four matches.

Earlier in the afternoon,the Super Division contest between State Bank of India and Bombay FC was also a thrilling affair,which the bankers managed to win by a 3-1 margin. The highlight of State Bank’s victory was the twin strikes by Hassan Rizvi,who scored a goal in each half. Ajil Almeida got the third goal. For the losers Farzaad Dastoor netted the lone goal.

Results: Super Div: State Bank of India 3 (Hassan Rizvi 2,Ajil Almeida) bt Bombay FC 1 (Farzaad Dastoor).Elite Div: Mumbai Customs 3 (Francisco Salian3) bt Central Railway 2 (Abhishek Yadav,Shafique Shaikh).