Indian Bank maintains clean slate

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MARCH 19. Indian Bank coach V.P. Sathyan never thought he would need the services of his keymen Sabir Pasha and Hamilton Bobby for the match against lowly State Bank of Hyderabad. But an early goal by SBH was too much to accept and in came the stalwarts to transform the game and help Indian Bank emerge a 4-1 winner on the final day of the South Zone second division National Football League at the SDAT Nehru stadium on Monday.

The result meant Indian Bank finished its three-match outing on an all-win note to top the zone. HAL Bangalore took the second spot. Both these teams now proceed to Bhopal for the second phase of the league to begin there on April 1.

Considering Indian Bank's record of two wins besides a good goal difference as added insurance, the team needed to only go through the motions with not even a loss by a small margin being a threat. But losing to the zone's weakest squad SBH was not on Indian Bank's agenda and so the third minute reversal, a Khaja Mohiuddin goal off Sailesh's provide, even before the teams could settle down, needed a face-saving exercise. But that had to wait until the second session when SBH changed ends on a 1-0 advantage.

Once Pasha and Bobby entered, Indian Bank started to dominate. Moves came in cascades to the SBH end, and in the space of 13 minutes, starting with Joseph's goal at the turn of the hour, Indian Bank slotted in four.

Joseph's goal came off a Bobby centre from far. Then Bobby himself shot in from close to put Indian Bank ahead. SBH, at this stage, changed its goalkeeper, bringing Gopaiah in place of Sreenivasa Rao. Pasha foxed the new goalkeeper with a curling grounder that brooked no stopping. Finally, Joseph completed Gopaiah's woeful tale in this league.

Final league table (read matches played, won, draw, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Indian Bank 3-3-0-0-12-2-9; HAL 3-2- 0-1-6-5-6; Central Excise 3-1-0-2-5-8-3; SBH 3-0-0-3-1-9-0.

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Section  : Sport
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