Date:09/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/09/stories/2008120961131800.htm

Sport - Football

Southern Railway beats SBI

Sports Reporter

CHENNAI: A man short for most of the match, Southern Railway beat State Bank of India 3-1 in a CFA senior division football league match at the J.N. Stadium, here on Monday.

S. Vinod Kumar netted two goals within six minutes to seal his team’s win.

With both teams having lost their previous fixtures by big margins, Monday’s match took off amid talk of ‘weak’ teams with the word ‘relegation’ thrown in for good measure.

Rajesh sent off

R. Rajesh of Southern Railway did his team no favours when he elbowed SBI’s Sudhakar in the 22nd minute and was sent off.

SBI, however, failed to capitalise on its numbers advantage as Southern Railway plotted several breakaway runs and had five unsuccessful shots at goal in the first 30 minutes.

The first goal for Southern Railway came in the 32nd minute when Bharath tapped one into the net off a Vasanthakumar corner kick.

Brace by Vinod

In the second-half, Vinod made up for a couple of missed opportunities with a brace.

He shot along the ground from the edge of the penalty box to score his first in the 64th minute, and then saw an off-side-evading pass by Oscar Yesudas to its conclusion in the 70th, with the ball just about trickling into the net.

Down by three goals, SBI stepped up the tempo in the concluding stages, but managed to pull just one goal back during added time.

Substitute James Nathaniel angled one past the keeper in the 81st minute to score the lone goal for his team.

In the first division league, Perambur Blues beat TNEB 3-0. Surendran, Suresh Kumar and Raj Kumar scored a goal each for Perambur Blues.