Cooperage draws a lacklustre fare

The goal could also be featured among the best of the season, so far.

To be fair to the teams, the turf at Cooperage had dried out but was presenting some uneven bounce, nullifying whatever good football the teams may have attempted.

In the first match, MSP seemed to have overcome their inhibitions and played their best so far. They maintainedthe pressure throughout with attacks from both flanks. But for the mistake from their goalkeeper Ajay Bhonge, MSP could have proudly walked away with three points.

Bhonge was not entirely behind the ball as Satish ME’s left-foot shot hit the turf and bounced awkwardly to slip out of his grasp and roll in. If Bhonge had had his body behind the ball, he could have accounted for the bad bounce on a shot that was hit just three yards to his left.

After Abid’s great goal, MSP could have well wrapped up the game in final minute when Abid’s shot went agonisingly close to the goal.

The pass was provided by Xavier Bernard, one of the two mid-fielders who had a good game. The other was Javed Pathan. Both were instrumental in fuelling MSP’s attacks from the flanks. Bernard and Pathan had great company in Abid, who was all over the place retrieving balls and setting up the forwards.

BoI had no thrust in their attacks. Anton Saldanha as the right winger hardly deserved his 90 minutes on the field while NavinKotian in the mid-field was a passenger.

Their best department was the defence with Evaristo Cardoz and Prakash Mehra excelling with their anticipation, preventing bigger disaster against the Cops.

Mahindras lacklustre:Mahindras also should not be complaining too much about having to share a point each. RCF looked solid in defence, putting as much as eight men behind the ball.

Mahindras concentrated on breaking the RCF down the centre. It never worked for about 70 minutes. In the final half hour, they stretched the RCF defence wide, but were unable to snap it open.

In fact, Mahindras’ best chance of a goal came through a mis-pass in defence. Hassan al-Fowad, their captain, had the intention of clearing the ball out of danger but handed the ball to Aqueel Ansari. Ansari fired from the edge of the penalty area only to hit the bar.

Prior to this moment in the 74th minute, the only way they caused a flutter in the RCF defence was through Naushad Moosa’s super-long throw-ins. From the sidelines,Moosa consistently threw so long that it looked like crosses from him.

With the return of Christopher in defence, Mahindras pushed Bernard up to the midfield. But none of the big-names worked for Mahindras as RCF crowded out their players.