The Hindu : Sport / Football : Tollygunge Agragami and Mahindra split points

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Saturday, Apr 30, 2005

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Sport - Football

Tollygunge Agragami and Mahindra split points

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Languishing in the relegation zone, DTDC Tollygunge Agragami settled for a point with Mahindra United after a 1-1 draw in a 20th round match of the National Football League at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Friday.

Tollygunge now has 17 points while Mahindra reached 29 points. Tollygunge still continued to be at the bottom of the league table just ahead of State Bank of Travancore (15 points from 20 games).

Surajit Bose put the local team ahead in the ninth minute off a counter attack. Unmarked and clear of the Mahindra defenders, Bose lobbed the ball over the rival custodian Sandip Nandy when the latter charged out to thwart the striker.

An early goal and the hope of winning the match prompted Tollygunge to adopt defensive tactics and paid for the mistake. Mahindra launched a series of raids deep into the home team's area. The dogged defence of Tollygunge managed to hold the rival forwards at bay till halftime.

Mahindra continued to attack in the later half and enjoyed a lot of space to move into the striking position. As the pressure mounted on Tollygunge's defence, it cracked in the 77th minute.

An overlapping right back Steven Dias lobbed a fine centre to N.S. Manju, a former Tata Football Academy product and a defender, who made no mistake by pushing the ball home to restore parity.

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