The Hindu : Tollygunge Agragami swamps ITI

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 17, 2003

Sport

Sport - Football

Tollygunge Agragami swamps ITI

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE Feb. 16. Indian Telephone Industries' (ITI) bag of woes continued as Ashim Biswas swooped twice to help Tollygunge Agragami defeat the local boys 4-0 in the Oil PSU National Football League match at the Football Stadium here on Sunday. Akeem Abolonle and Moses N. Oira added to Biswas' tally.

ITI's search for a victory proved futile and the Telephonemen continue to languish at the bottom of the league with just four points from 14 matches while Tollygunge surged to 20 points from 14 outings.

The Kolkata outfit had it easy as the ITI defence often let the gates open, leaving goal keeper Gumpe Rime a flustered man. Gumpe did his best, fisting away volleys and charging out to foil rival attacks but despite his valiant efforts, Tollygunge kept scoring. ITT replaced Sunil Kumar with Firoz in the defence after Tollygunge dominated earlier exchanges. However, the defence continued to sulk rather than thwart rival moves.

Tollygunge struck in the 35th minute as Ashim Biswas latched onto an Uttam Debnath pass from the right flank. Ashim sidestepped the ITI defence and nudged one past the outstretched hands of Gumpe Rime.

Leading 1-0 at the break, Tollygunge suffered a scare early on in the second half as ITI's K.P. Dhanesh latched onto a rebound of a goalmouth melee. However, Dhanesh failed to hear the whistle blown for a foul and tapped past goal keeper Arindam Ghosh. The ITI ranks burst into cheers until referee Benjamin D'Silva helped better sense prevail.

The ITI raids nearly acquired a lethal flair but Arindam Ghosh's brilliance proved a stumbling block. An Ibrahim Karim Alhasian stinger was fisted away by an airborne Arindam diving to his left and ITI never had a second chance.

Ashim Biswas continued to tease and torment and his effortless run in the 86th minute spelt despair to Gumpe Rime. More was to follow as the ITI ranks were busy waving the white flag rather than go down with guns blazing. And in the dying minutes Akeem Abolonle bulged the net and his feat was soon emulated by Moses N. Oira during injury time as he capitalised on a Laltu K.R. Das diagonal that brooked no resistance from an inept ITI defence.

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