FC Kochin trounce Dempo

Isaac Tondo (28th and 71st minute penalty), Tejinder Kumar (83rd) and Sunday Seah (85th) struck for the winners, who were without their injured striker IM Vijayan.

The telling difference between the two teams was the ease with which FC Kochin infiltrated into spaces between Dempo’s deep defence and mid-field. FC Kochin’s central linkmen Tejinder Kumar and Noel Wilson caught the eye with their interceptions and controlled the proceedings with good passes.

FC Kochin owed much to Tejinder. It was only after his arrival in the mid-field in place of an ineffective Shafeeq after 20 minutes of play, that FC Kochin’s attack began to find angles of approach which made the Dempo defence look square.

Tejinder found an unmarked Tondo inside the box, with a cross from the right to trigger off the move that clinched his side an early lead. The liberian, in turn, glanced in a cracking header that left the Dempo ‘keeper clueless. Tondo was on the target again, this time from the spot, midway through the second session, after he was tripped inside the box by Stanly Colaco.

Sunday Seah, the FC Kochin goalkeeper, who joined the attack in the 80th minute, spurred Tejinder with an accurate diagonal, enabling the latter to stab the ball home without much effort. Sunday himself rounded off in the 85th, volleying home Mahesh Gawli’s pass from the left.

FC Kochin will meet East Bengal in their last league engagement on March 26.