Champions CC begin well

The sparse gathering at the ground was in for an unexpected surprise, as a dozen goals were accounted for in the two matches. Moreover Amjad was left with the honour of becoming the first player to notch a hat-trick in the league, which is six matches old. His efforts thus handed Chetak their second consecutive defeat from the three matches they played so far.

Chetak’s downfall was through the butter-fingered goal-keeping of Varun Khanwalkar, who on two counts conceded goals which left the team in disarray early.

Twelve minutes through and City Club’s striker Sanu Jacob put his team ahead in the most casual manner. With defender Chetan Chavan beaten, the striker’s casual shot on goal ended up being collected momentarily and in a jiffy found itself in the net.

To make matters worse, Chetak had Siddharth Jamdar muff up a sitter from handshaking distance after Kartik Mandrekar crossed from the right. At the other end, Chetak conceded the second goal. Matthew Susainathan, finding Amjad in the clear on the right, played him a pass. Amjad did well to slide and divert the ball goalward past the rather `casual’ ‘keeper.

Changing ends, Chetak pulled one back in the 43rd minute off a counter which saw Chetan, who moved up, find the speedy Sourab Supnekar darting down the left, beat defender Michael Pinto and finish past ‘keeper Zia Sheikh.

Seven minutes later, Amjad used Domnic Albert’s pass to its fullest to score his second and converted a spot-kick thereafter to complete his hat-trick. The penalty was awarded when defender Feroz Banedar brought down Amjad, on the tip of the box, when he converged on a Domnic pass from the right.

With the game lost, Chetak reduced the margin in the 57th minute, when City Club’s defender Salim Sheikh pulled down Amit Nevalli, who replied with a perfected conversion.

Shivajians prevail: Later, Rahul SC, Pimpri, who were at the receiving end during the first-half, did well to restrict the score to 0-1 at the breather, with Dal Paw finding the net in the 25th minute.

However, with Harish Pardeshi (36th) restoring parity a minute after resumption, what followed were non-committal mistakes which led to Rahul’s downfall. A neatly executed free-kick by Jayendra found defender Tushar M rooted, left Thawn Paw with just ‘keeper Tejinder R to beat, which he acknowledged in the 52nd minute.

Sandeep Pardeshi leveled scores for the second time for Rahul when he lunged a yard more then expectation to beat the rival custodian Nelson Po, after Harish Mehra curled the ball in from the left.

Shivajians made it 3-2 when substitute Giri Charles, who came on for Sameer Satav in the 58th minute, utilised a defensive blunder, buldged the roof of the net after Vikram Pillay’s flag-kick landed at his feet on the top of the box.

And finally with two minutes to go, Jayendra put Cedric Fernandes in the clear, with a good through ball, which ended up tucked in the right-corner of the net.

Today’s Fixtures
(Group-A) Chetak Sports Club v Sangam Young Boys — 3.00 p.m; (Group-B) Old Boys Association (OBA) v Deccan XI `A’ — 4.30 p.m.