Andhra unimpressive in win

By M.R.Praveen Chandran

CHALAKUDY, MARCH 24. Andhra Pradesh was far from impressive even as it blanked Daman and Diu 5-0 in a Cluster III encounter of the 56th National football championship for the Santosh Trophy at the Carmel stadium here on Friday.

It was not the kind of start which Andhra had hoped for as a defensive Daman and Diu could manage to restrict the margin of victory and frustrate its rival. Pushing in almost all its players to defend its citadel, the Daman side adopted a defensive attitude after conceding an early goal in the second minute.

It was Andhra captain Syed Abdul Jaleel who gave his side the lead goal, heading in a floater from Khaleel-ur-Rahman. But after that, the goals dried up through Andhra continued to hold the whiphand. The Daman players seemed not to mind giving away corners as their only motive was not to concede any goals further.

The Andhra strikers also did not distinguish themselves with their poor marksmanship inside the rival penalty box. The Andhra forwardline at times failed to combine well and it was one of the reasons for the side not being able to score during its period of domination. Syed Abdul Jaleel missed the easiest of chances which his side got in the first-half, when he tapped the ball out in front of an open goal.

Defender Nevin Mendoca brought of a fine goalline save to deny Prasana Kumar David in the 42nd minute after the latter had chested the ball into an open goal off a Laxmi Narayana cross. The inexperience of the Daman players was fairly obvious when Lloyd Louis missed the only chance his team got in the first- half. Lloyd had only the goalkeeper Dawood Mustafa to beat but he shot wide from close.

Daman withstood the Andhra attack till the 69th minute. But the pressure was too much on young goalkeeper Ralph Miranda whose mistake resulted in the second goal. Ralph failed to collect a shot from substitute Jude properly and the rebound was knocked in by an unmarked T.Prasana Kumar. The goal saw Andhra attack with more vigour and it scored again in the 76th minute when substitute Sriram headed in a corner taken by Nagarjuna.

Two minutes later, Johnson made it 4-0 scoring of a Khaleel centre from the right before Nagarjuna rounded off the tally converted a spot-kick in the 79th minute. The kick was given when Nagarjuna himself was brought down inside the box by Anand Nair. Daman managed to keep its citadel intact after that though it suffered several close calls.

Andhra has its task cut out as it meets Railways tomorrow in a match to decide the pre-quarterfinalist from this Cluster. Railways had earlier hammered Daman 16-0.

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