The Hindu : Sport / Football : Indian Bank signs off on disappointing note

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 16, 2005

Sport

Sport - Football

Indian Bank signs off on disappointing note

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Indian Bank's wretched run continued as it lost 1-0 to BSF on the final day of the competition at the Nehru stadium on Sunday to finish a eminently forgettable campaign in this year's second division national football league.

Earlier, Air India, Mumbai, despite going in for bench players for the best part, had sufficient strength to score a 2-1 win over Karnataka Police and join HAL as the second team to qualify from Group `A' for the final phase of the competition scheduled in Jamshedpur.

Air India's goals came from Lawrence Dias (40th min.) and Neil Gaikwad (56th) while Police reduced the margin through Sendhil Kumar (64th).

The least the local side could have provided the yearning fans was a sign off with a win. But the disappointment continued and this was not unexpected, considering the haphazardness in its approach.

There was little that was comforting in its show. The ploy to bring in veteran Sabir Pasha early was understandable but he had to be utilised well. Just one run of his down the left flank showed his value as he worked his way into the box, only to be tripped by defender Raghuvir Singh. Surprisingly, referee Jayanta Sarkar did not see anything grave in the infringement.

But for that the focus was on Santosh Kujur and Sunil Vergil, the hardworking BSF duo in the front, who kept probing, thanks to supplies from the medios Ouseph and Sarabjit Singh in particular. Kujur showed delightful control of the ball and the shot he took on the run in the 27th minute deserved a better end result than the dipping fly-over.

Only minutes earlier, Sudhakar symbolised the mood of the Bank side with his passive back pass that Sunil nearly proved easy fodder for Sunil.

For its perseverance, BSF reaped the reward when Kujur from far sent the cross for Amarjit Rai to fox Felix in the 64th minute. The Bank could not recover from there.

Final table (read under team, matches played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): HAL 5-4-1-0-10-1-13; Air India 5-4-1-0-9-4-13; Indian Bank 5-2-0-3-7-7-6; BSF 5-2-0-3-6-6-6; BMFC 5-1-1-3-3-7-4; Karnataka Police 5-0-1-4-2-12-1.

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