KOZHIKODE: In one of the liveliest games in the NFL second division so far, ONGC held Salgaocar to a 1-1 draw at the Corporation Stadium here on Saturday.

ONGC took the lead through Tarif Ahmed in the 36th minute before Jerose Oliviera scored the equaliser in the 54th minute.

It was Salgaocar, which had the better of the exchanges early on and had at least four decent chances to score inside the first 25 minutes but nothing happened due to a combination of poor shooting by its strikers and a good show under the bar by ONGC's Bilifang Narzary.

Goal

ONGC too made frequent raids into the rival territory and one of them bore fruit.

In the 36th minute, a perfect cross from Kabijit Khotel down the right flank produced a perfect header from Tarif.

Salgaocar did get opportunities to equalise in the first half, but failed.

The dangerous Felix Chimaokwu, who was well marked by the ONGC defenders Krishna Shirodkar and Sandeep Das, and R.C. Prakash were the main culprits.

Attack

The Goans continued to attack in the second half too.

The equaliser came off a Rocus Lamare corner, which was headed out by Julius Akpele and the job was finished off in style by Oliviera, who fired into the roof of the net from close in.

Neither side was keen to share the points as the ball rarely stayed in the midfield.

The well-fought game ended on a slightly farcical note when, in the injury time, the referee forgot to send ONGC's Dharmesh Patel off after showing him a second yellow card.

The umpire realised his mistake only when the Salgaocar players on the bench pointed it out to him.

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