NOVEMBER 5: Im Vijayan's brilliant back-heel that set up FC Kochin's equaliser was the redeeming feature of the opening day play in the Bristol Rovers Cup Football Tournament at the Cooperage today.Facing his own goal, Vijayan had the ball in possession close to the Mahindra penalty area. His back-pass foxed the entire Mahindras defence and released Ram Rai on the left. Though goalkeeper S Rajan got a fair bit of his hand to the ball, he could not prevent Rai from finding the mark in the 10th minute.It was a swift equaliser, as Mahindras had scored just a minute before through Bernard, following a flag-kick.Vijayan's brilliance was the saving grace of the day which saw only three goals in 180 minutes of play. Mahindras' concentrated on block out Vijayan at all costs.Vijayan's brilliance apart, the match evoked sustained yawns. Mahindras could have walked away with some consolation points for being relatively more adventerous in their attacks than their southern rivals.Mahindras had two goodscoring chances, with Aqueel in his elements. However, on both ocassions Mahindras were frustrated by goalline saves.Mahindras' best effort came when right wing-back Surmani Singh floated the ball for Manjit Singh to essay a back-volley. The rebound rolled on to Abbas Rizvi, whose shot was blocked on the line by Kochin goalkeeper Dinesh Nair.RIME'S BLUNDER: Bengal Mumbai FC should be kicking their goalkeeper Gumpe Rime on his back-side for letting slip one point that they would have earned from a draw against Churchill Brothers.Somatai Shaiza's innocuous shot should have been a regulation collection for Rime. The ball was not even goalbound. But Rime dropped the ball in front of Kaustav Ghosh after seemingly collecting it. Ghosh, who came in for Marcus Carvalho, gleefully latched on to the ball to slot it in.There was one other chance for either team. On a cross from Churchill right-wing back Denzie Ferrao, Francis Silveira missed a header. Though Marcus got his head to the ball, it was wide off thetarget. At the other end, Jagjit Singh smashed a shot wide with only Churchill goalkeeper Edward Ansah to beat.
