Mahindras thrash Railwaymen

MUMBAI, AUG 16: It is easy to imagine an embarrassed Julius Caesar who, after setting sail to capture Britain and stepping off at the Eng...

MUMBAI, AUG 16: It is easy to imagine an embarrassed Julius Caesar who, after setting sail to capture Britain and stepping off at the English coast, finds no response to his war cry. When he finds out that the infantry has toodled off to the duty-free shops, leaving him alone, he kicks the dust and pollutes the air with some pungent Roman expletives, to say the least.

Caesar8217;s discomfort, however understandable, pales in comparision to the uneasiness the Central Railway football management is experiencing this season. The team8217;s stock, after rising steeply in the aftermaths of the Rovers Cup, has plummeted quicker than a blue chip share in the Great Crash of 1929. Today, Central Railway CR experienced their worst defeat in the Gulf Oil Wifa Super Division at the Cooperage, losing 0-6 to Mahindras. Following the 0-5 drubbing at the hands of BMFC, CR rendered their chances of qualifying for the five-team Super League as remote as a snowball8217;s, in hell.

Then, Bank of India BoI delivered a telling blow, inflicting on title contenders Air-India A-I their first defeat, to further their chances of qualifying for the second stage.

The railwaymen8217;s reluctance to give off their best, at a stage when they should have been battling for survival, renders starker the Caesar army analogy. Satish Minz started the riot in the 11th minute, pouncing on a slack defence clearance by the sluggish Anton Fernandes, and powering past a helpless Mark Mascarenhas from the top of the box.

Manjit Singh made it 3-0. In the 25th, he slotted in a centre, from the left flank, bt Sanjay Dayal. Fifteen minutes later, the cross came from the right, after Minz had switched to Aqueel Ansari. Ansari8217;s centre, following a 40-yard run, found Manjit finishing splendidly from the in-step.

The railwaymen continued their splendid imitations of wax models from Madame Tussaud8217;s into the second half, while Mahindras made merry after some initial bickering over who should score.

Abbas Ali Rizvi, whose runs down the left flank made Anton Fernandes look like a lame snail, put his head in the path of a Harish Sharma cross from the left 4-0, 66th.

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Defender Naushad Musa joined the party when he punished Mascarenhas for deflecting a flag-kick into his path 70th. And Harish Sharma, a substitute for Satish Minz, got his third goal of the league, Manjit Singh providing the assist.

BoI wall stands: In defence, BoI resembled the Great Wall: an impregnable fortress that kept the A-I Mongols away. A stern man-to-man marking, by men whose spirit should have been an eye-opener for the railwaymen, cramped A-I8217;s open style. Umesh Shetty, Navin Kotian, Chandan Harizan and SC Thakur kept the dangerous Bungo Singh and Khalid Jamil at bay. The playing conditions were not much to A-I8217;s liking, either, the odd bounce frustrating the best plans.

The lone goal came in the 32nd minute, off a lapse. Custodian Partha Das fumbled with a powerful strike from the left by the tireless Chandrakant Poojary, and Anton Saldanha guided it in past a frozen defence.

Low morale in Railway camp

Two crushing defeats, in succession, have only confirmed the low morale in the Central Railway camp. The immediate cause has been the decision of the Central Railway Sports Board CRSB to release ace goalkeeper Raghuveer Khanolkar for a year. Khanolkar will play for Salgaocar, but continues to be on the Railways8217; pay-roll.

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That CRSB did not release other players, like Asif Jamal who got an offer from Mohun Bagan, has not gone well with the players, and there are reports that they are rebelling.