Bagan hold slight advantage

Mahindras have, from the last match, regained their confidence. They managed to defeat ITI, though by a solitary goal, despite having under tremendous pressure. The list of their injured players seemed unending. Still they were held united by the brilliant players skipper Aqeel Ansari, Abhay and Manjit, who manouevred the all-important goal. United goalkeeper and also India’s number one choice under the bar Virender Singh, did a marvellous job. And that puts the entire onus on these jeepmen to change the the course of the match and see their team out of trouble, if any on the morrow. To make the battle easier the local team has in their ranks the foreigners Christopher I, Habib Adikunle and Davoud Hosseini.

Coach Bhattacharjee’s ‘fears’ apart, Bagan have a solid line-up comprising the likes of Brazilian Berreto, Debjit Ghosh, RP Singh and Basudev Mondal, who have the ability of turning the tables against any formidable rival.

Salgaocar beat Tolly

Margao: Former champions Salgaocar lived upto expectations when they carved out a 2-0 win against Tollygunge Agragami in the fifth National Football League.

Salgaocar, who dominated the second half after the first half, was confined mostly to midfield, shot into the lead in the 57th minute through medio Dharmajit Singh. Tollygunge defence, which withstood the pressure, fell apart, when a long lob by Agustine Rodrigues into the box from the right, beat two defenders.

Defender Debasish Paul Chowdhury tried to clear the ball with his head but it fell onto the feet of medio Dharamjit Singh, who uncorked a left footer that beat keeper Hemant Dora all ends.

Their citadel fell again when Bruno Coutinho found a lose ball which came to him via a defender’s deflection. He essayed a 20-yards power packed shot that found the ball nestled into the far end of the net.

Tollygunge, who were denied any clear look at the goal in the first half, had three scoring chances in the second half but Sasthi Duley and substitute Qizar Mohd failed to find the target.

Keeper Juje Siddi, who was not stretched today, made a good save when he dived to his right to deny Satish Kumar Barti from scoring. With this win, Salgaocar have nine points from four matches. Tollygunge remained at the bottom with one point from four matches.

Even contest on cards

KOCHI: An Absorbing tussle is on the cards when a confident looking FC Kochin takes on ITI, Bangalore, in a National Football League encounter at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Monday.

Both the teams had so far played four matches and ITI has accumulated four points (1 win, 1 draw, 2 losses) while the local outfit has 10 points (3 win, 1 draw). ‘‘The unfortunate defeats my team had suffered in this edition has not weakened the morale. In fact it had increased their confidence’ said an optimistic Mohammed Habeeb, ITI coach and an Arjuna awardee.

“Our aim is to win the full three points here. Team work is our strength, it will be a repeatition of last year’s match at Thrissur where in ITI won 1-0 over FC Kochin,†the former Indian striker said.

On the other side, FC Kochin coach A M Sreedharan said, ‘‘It would be a tight and even contest. We will not take them lightly. ITI had defeated East Bengal and done well against Bagan in their earlier matches and that shows the team is in good form.â€