MARGAO, March 6: FC Kochin owed much to a safe pair of hands today. Ali Abubaker, the lanky goalkeeper, plucked the ball off his rivals' heads, turned around hard shots and lunged in the air to grab powerful volleys to help his team earn a goalless draw against Salgaocar in the Philips National Football League today.But there was another side to the story. It was one of Abubaker's blind fouls that left rival striker Sanaton Singh grimacing with pain on the field in the fifth minute. Sanaton, who was stretchered out, was later taken to hospital.The Kochi side, which had flopped in its defensive action in recent matches, began to move the ball around. Jo Paul Ancheri advanced more, but occasionally he hit fine crossfield passes, while Carlton Chapman darted upfield often to pressurise the Salgaocar defence.Abdul Kareem, who formed the attack along with Raman Vijayan and Salissu in the absence of I M Vijayan, sent the ball between the central defenders in the 10th minute. Raman was unequal to the taskof converting the scoring opportunity, though he moved into the penalty area with the ball, only to shoot weakly to the goal-keeper.Salgaocar held the upper-hand in exchanges around the mid-field. Their medios used the width of the field more effectively and intelligently than their rivals, almost throughout the entire first-half. Bruno Coutinho, who was more on the left in the first session, was deceptive with his solos down the touchline.Heavily-packed deep defence, with an alert Abubaker behind it, however, denied Salgaocar an early lead. Abubaker leapt in the air to fist away Olalekan's rising shot, rushed forward to cut off a Odegah cross in mid-air, and pounced on Venkatesh's feet before he could release the ball. On one of the rare occasions when man-of-the-match Abubaker was out of his charge, Olalekan hit the woodwork with a power-packed right-footed volley.The Salgaocar defence left hardly any space empty for the rivals to creep in. The FC Kochin mid-field which functioned in fits andstarts, made things easier for them.Kochin have 21 points from 15 matches, and Salgaocar 25 from 15.
