The Hindu : Felix stars in Mahindra's big win

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 18, 2004

Sport

Sport - Football

Felix stars in Mahindra's big win

By Our Sports Reporter

KOLKATA, MARCH 17. Mumbai giant Mahindra United rode on Felix Aboagye's hat-trick to accomplish one of the biggest victory margins so far thrashing Mohammedan Sporting 5-1 in a 16th round match of the eighth National Football League here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday.

Having lost to East Bengal (0-2) and the goalless draw against Mohun Bagan in the previous rounds, Mahindra United made a big comeback collecting full points today. The win helped the visitor collect 27 points from 16 matches, raising prospects of bettering its position in the top half of the points table. On the other hand, Mohammedan Sporting slipped back into the relegation bracket remaining in the 11th spot of the 12-team league with 15 points.

The ploy of starting without two of its trusted foreigners, Chidi Edeh and Okoli Oadafa, proved costly for Mohammedan Sporting, which failed to bring up the requisite challenge against a strong Mahindra line-up. Mahindra got into the scoring act right in the ninth minute as its African recruit, Raphael Patron, nodded home a Aboagye floater set into the opponent box. Aboagye took up the mantle of scoring the next three goals for Mahindra. His midfield colleague, Shanmugam Venkatesh, gave him good support to get the goals in the 40th and 69th minutes. Aboagye completed his hat-trick in the 74th minute with a solo effort as he dribbled, on being reached by a Patron thorough-pass, into the Sporting box and finished the move with a clever placing. The Mahindra tally was completed by the opponent defender, Madhab Das, who miscued an attempted clearance on a James Singh back-centre into his own goal in the 76th minute.

The only Mohammedan Sporting goal resulted in the 59th minute, when striker Dipendu Biswas headed in a corner-shot that was routed along by Bungo Singh, for the former to finish.

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