Pal sends Tractors crashing

Railwaymen were on attack from the word go. Seasoned striker Pal drew the first blood for the Railwaymen in the seventh minute when his left foot punch defeated Atif Ansari, Mahindras Goalkeeper. Pal was put a diagonal ball by play-maker Sunil Mishra in the striking area. He went a step further to his left before dispatching a powerful strike.

A minute later, Pal set up the second goal for fellow striker Felix Joseph. He put Joseph a forward pass who defeated the Mahindras defence with sheer speed. Pal outstretched Tractors right defender Eusebio and caught him on the wrong foot unleasinga powerful shot to bulge the net.

The second goal of Pal8217;s hat-trick came in the 15th minute when he placed medio Inam ul Haq8217;s free-kick to the left of Ansari from a close range.

By scoring the fourth goal, Pal sealed the victory for Railway as their young opponents coincided four goal8217;s in the first 30 minute of the match.

Exhibiting his speed and control in the 30th minute, Pal outpaced Amit Sawant, his young rival and placed his right foot shot to the right of a panicky Ansari.

But the Tractor boys came back strongly as striker Anish Kanchan 8211; Nigel Mathias combination worked well to get back two goals for them.

In the 38th minute, Kanchan8217;s on-the-run shot swelled the goalpost8217;s roof. Mathias after dribbling couple of Railwaymen set for the lanky defender who surprised Railway goalkeeper Abdul Majeed, with his fine execution.

At the time of breather, Tractors were trailing 1-4. Tractors then brought one more back in the 60th minute. This time Anthony Fernandes grabbed the opportunity on afree-kick rebound. Kanchan curled his free-kick over the wall but Majeed came with a remarkable save as he fisted the ball in the play. The rebound ball rolled to a waiting Fernandes who kept his cool and placed the ball on the far corner giving Majeed no chance to react.

Tractor could have reduced the lead in the 58th minute when Kanchan8217;s fine run through the centre caught Railway defence flat-footed. But his placement went inches wide of the left post.

The mid-field of Railwaymen was the highlight of the day. Mishra, Sameer Sheikh, Roshan Lal and Haq combined well and provided enough ammunition to the forwards. They used maximum width of the ground and their accurate passes forced amateur rivals to sweat out their stamina.

WR coach Matkar brought in fresh pairs of legs in the form of Sandesh Pelnekar and Shyjit Nair for Pal and Sameer to make an addition in the striking force.

But the second-half was controlled by Tractor boys. They were making invariable dents in the Railway8217;s defence by sendingdangerous crosses.

Sanjeev Jain and Rakesh Yadav came in as substitutes for Intakhab and Eusebio.

Goalkeeper Ansari who was shaky in the first-half came up with couple of brave saves. He advanced to thwart Mishra8217;s attempt in the opening minute of second-half. On another occasion, he jumped to his right to collect Lal8217;s curling shot.

In another first division encounter today, New India Insurance defeated G M Sports Club 2-0. Placidus Dias scored the first goal in the 48th minute of the match while six minute later Shaun D8217;Souza added another to the tally to seal the match in New India8217;s favour.