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Football
FC Kochin's first win
By Our Special Correspondent
KOCHI, DEC. 31. FC Kochin, expectedly, found its first win of the VI National football league as it defeated newcomers Punjab Police at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here on Monday evening. But even in victory the home side was hardly convincing before it romped home with a 2-0 margin.
Already a team fighting to the overcome the many problems faced by it in the midfield and in the attack, FC Kochin at the start itself appeared clueless without Mikola Shevchenko and K. Noushad, who had to stay away owing to a temporary suspension. And if under ordinary circumstances, Mohammed Shafeeq was expected to spearhead the local team's fortunes in the middle, he was least inspiring to his inexperienced younger colleagues so much so that striker Josiah Seton had to shoulder the responsibility of effecting forays into the rival end time and again.
Upfront, matters were still worse as V.P.Shaji and Sushanth Mathew never measured up and thus failed to make any impact on the rival defence where the sturdy Rajesh Kumar was quick with his clearances. The only positive feature of the local team's show this evening then was the performance dished out by its defence so effectively marshalled by the never-say-die Obinna Winners.
Punjab Police already under pressure after having succumbed in each of its four earlier outings too only made the evening miserable, failing to work out to a plan and make good use of the frailties of its rival. The inexperienced boys who made up the team from Punjab apart from some hard running was never in shape to take the battle into the rival camp, being poor in basics that howls of protest often rent the air almost all through the first-half.
While chances went abegging at the other end, the only time that Punjab Police looked near to be in a position to forge ahead was when Kuldip Singh came up with a crisp cross to Sher Singh into the heart of the Kochi goal area. However, expectedly, Sher Singh proved to a bundle of nerves and could only head the ball over the bar.
Shaji, who was almost continuously abused by the spartan crowd was the one who shaped up FC Kochin's lead goal though strictly it was an advancing Rajesh Kumar who prompted the Kochi striker to pass the ball ahead from the top of the box. Sushanth Mathew, thankfully, was quick to gain control this time around and his sliding shot after getting past Balwinder Singh met little resistance other than from the uprights before entering the rival goal.
Satish Kumar, the Punjab Police custodian, was kept under pressure for most of time after the restart as the FC Kochin finally picked up some pace. But on most occasions he was left with hardly any work to as the rival strikers themselves proved to be a great ally of his with their wayward shooting. Until Shaji made amends for his earlier lapses tapping in a pass from Susanth Mathew cross from the right. Shafeeq with only minutes left for the end picked up a second yellow which now rules him out of FC Kochin's next match against Churchill Brothers, Goa, here on January 6. Punjab Police will return home to meet HAL, Bangalore in Jalandhar on January 5.
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