Air India down Mohd. Sporting; SBT win

Air India, Bombay, held on to a 44th minute goal by Samson Singh to oust Mohammedan Sporting, Calcutta, 1-0 in the Federation Cup football tournament in Madras on Friday evening.

In another match, State Bank of Travancore, Thiruvananthapuram, swamped local outfit Integral Coach Factory 5-1, after leading 4-1 at half time 4-1 to storm into the pre-quarterfinals.

Mohammedan Sporting's defence was caught unawares just before the break following a move between Air India forwards Narendra Meetei and Samson Singh. The former darted into the box and shot towards the left corner off the goal. However, his shot was not collected cleanly by goalkeeper Imran Khan and the ball travelled to Samson Singh, who was lurking nearby. The striker despatched home in a flash.

Air India had a few goal scoring chances in the first half, as compared to just one close look at their goal by the Calcutta outfit, but their forwards -- Narendra Meetei, Samson Singh and Steven B Dias -- were tightly marked and could not capitalise on them.

In the very first minute, the airmen came close to scoring but Harish Sharma failed to finish on a good chance after 'keeper Imran Khan failed to collect cleanly a shot from Samson Singh.

Mohammedan Sporting seemed to be handicapped after Nigerian recruit Lawrence Enyi Lord was forced to leave the field after sustaining a cut on his left eyebrow while going for a high ball. Just before this, he received a yellow card.

In the 38th minute, Mohammedan Sporting almost scored against the run of play with its strikers succeeding in splitting the Air India defence, which was well manned by Manitombi Singh, Osbern D'Souza and Naushad Moosa. Md Raffique gave a diagonal pass to Ayaz Bin Adul Haq, who dodged past a couple of defenders and made his way to the box from the left. As goalkeeper Israt Kamaal came out, he lobbed the ball over his head only to see it narrowly miss the mark.

Air India then attacked relentlessly and had two more scoring opportunities before Samson succeeded in the 44th minute.

After crossing over, the Bombay side saw more of the ball but couldn't increase the lead.

In the SBT-ICF match, the former, a depleted side with seven regulars having shifted their allegiance to FC Kochi for this season, had enough resources to overwhelm the fighting coach factory men.

It was ICF who went into the lead in the seventh minute when Kulothungan scored from close range following a pass from Marcel Sladen.

Cheered by the local supporters, ICF had their share of raids, but the bank forwards, with superb support from its defenders had different ideas.

But the lead was shortlived. Perhaps, the initial setback motivated the bankmen, who came back with guns blazing. Once striker Abdul Naushad found the equaliser, it was SBT all the way.

Naushad scored the first of his three goals when he restored parity, heading home a floater by medio Lionel Thomas in the 15th minute. The bankmen wrested the initiative eight minutes later when Naushad again scored off a rebound after ICF custodian K Prakasam failed to collect Ajayan's fierce right footer. As the ball rolled, Naushad slotted the ball home.

The bankmen stretched the lead to 3-1 through a self goal by ICF defender Adharsan Raju. Off a free kick from a good 40 yards by SBT's Sivakumar, Adharsan Raju, in an attempt to clear the ball, headed straight into his own goal.

Close to half-time, Naushad completed a hat-trick of sorts, (considering that the earlier one was a self goal), converting a penalty-kick (4-1) after he was tripped by substitute Shaji.

Ashif Saheer made it 5-1 in the 23rd minute of the second half to complete the rout.

Earlier Federation Cup reports:
Day 1: Dempo win Fed Cup opener
Day 2: Golden goal win for Sporting Club de Goa