Calcutta stuns Mormugao

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM, MAY 2. Calcutta upset last year's runner-up Mormugao utilising a poor clearance by the latter's goalkeeper in the second half of its pool ``B'' league match in the 25th all- India Major Ports football tournament at the Port Diamond Jubilee Stadium here on Wednesday.

Holder Tuticorin blanked Paradip 3-0 in pool ``A'' in its first match of the tournament while host Visakhapatnam defeated Paradip 4-0 in the afternoon at the Railway Stadium for its second win in the pool.

Cochin prevailed over Mumbai 3-2 in a scrappy pool ``B'' match at Railway Stadium while Chennai toyed with New Mangalore before finishing the pool ``A'' match with a tally of 7-0 at Port Stadium.

Mormugao was in its element in the first ten minutes but Calcutta which gained an upper hand later had to wait till the ninth minute of the second half to gain full points. The all- important goal came through Pradeep Kumar Indu. The forward had only to push the ball in after Mormugao goaltender stopped a Sandip Ghosh attempt falling on his side but failed to collect it properly. Pradeep Kumar, standing nearby did not let the rebound go waste.

Marshall Coutinho had a fairly good chance a few minutes earlier but the Mormugao player balooned the ball over the cross bar. Calcutta had some chances to incrase its tally but Sanjeet Saha shot over an easy chance and Amar Pyne also did the same in a goalmouth melee after a corner kick was taken.

As the game was coming to an end, Mormugao caused jitters in the Calcutta ranks when Camildo Baptiste took a free kick from just above the box. His well measured lob beat the wall of defenders but the goalkeeper managed to collect the ball well.

Cochin, playing a rough game saw its Biju Abraham getting marching orders in the 15th minute of the second half after Preman scored a brace-a field goal in the 15th minute of the game and converted a pass from Sebastian in the 12th minute of the second half.

With the rival reduced to 10 players, Mumbai knocked in two goals, through Vijayan Sankaran in the 18th minute and midfielder Sunil Razack in the 30th, the second goal coming off a rapid exchange of the ball in the Cochin goal area.

But when two minutes were left for the long whistle, J. Sebastian ensure victory for Cochin with a superb shot, hitting the ball directly into the goal from the right corner. S.V. Thomas and Jinesh Thomas of Cochin and Angelo Fernandes of Mumbai received yellow cards during the game.

Visakhapatnam led 2-0 in the first half against Paradip. P. Appa Rao converted a penalty kick in the 10th minute awarded after his teammate Suresh was roughly tackled in the goal area. 20 minutes later Suresh did the spade work for the second goal. He dribbled past two defenders to put the ball in possession of Ashokan, positioned near the goal, to do the rest.

In the second minute afer resumption, V.V. Ramana, who substited Siraz, scored off a corner kick taken by Manivarnan and in the 15th minute, Manivarnan completed the tally, heading in a corner kick sent in by Siva.

The holder Tuticorin led Paradip 1-0 in the first half through a goal scored by Ramesh just one minute before the break. Nicholas and Suresh scored in the second and third minutes of the second half.

Chennai's K. Doss (eight and 17th minutes of first half), Rajendra Prasad (sixth and eighth of second half) scored a brace each while Ramesh knocked in two goals (10th and 34th of second half) and Ravi (23rd of second half) netted one against New Mangalore.

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