Mahindra United outplays Sporting

Dec 15:  Mahindra Unitedregistered their first win in the ongoing ONGC I-League

Mahindra United at last put an end to their winless jinx, as they completely outscored their rivals Sporting Clube de Goa to register their maiden win with a convincing 3-0 scoreline in the fifth round clash of the ongoing ONGC I-League played at the Nehru Stadium, Fatorda, here on Friday.

With this long-awaited victory the Mumbai based outfit took their points tally to six as they crawled up to the 5th position on the table.

Mahindra players started on a rousing note and got into the lead in the very first minute through midfielder Douhou Pierre, who slammed the first after receiving a ball from Andrews. Dou had ample time to shift the ball to his right foot, and getting past the Sporting goalkeeper Felix D'Souza.

Sporting had an easy opportunity to equalise three minutes later but unmarked Olushola Ogundare produced a weak shot from inside the box straight into the hands of keeper Sandip Nandy.

Mahindra slowly took control of the game and could have easily bettered their lead but Surajit twice failed to beat keeper Felix in the first half. Mahindra United led 1-0 at the half time.

On changing the ends, Nehru Cup hero Steven Dias doubled the lead in the 51st minute following an Andrew Pommie Mensah's back-pass after Surajit did all the groundwork from the left flank.

Down with two goals, Sporting players tried hard to make a comeback in the game and took control of the proceedings with Bisheshwar and Gavin, who did some hard work in the midfield. They both were able to open up as many as four goal-scoring opportunities, but frittered away at the end by some poor finishing of the Sporting strikers and some stout tackling from Mahindra defenders.

Late substitute Tarif Ahmed rubbed salt to Sporting's wounds by slipping the ball past goalkeeper Felix with a diving tap to Steven's cross in the injury time to complete the goal glut.

Steven Dias was awarded man of the match for his splendid performance

Teams:

Sporting Clube de Goa: D’Souza Felix (GK) ,Franco Danzil, Fernandes Carlos, Felip Gomes(Capt),Chinta Chandrashekhar, Meetei Rajesh , Pereira Joseph ,Fernandes Bibiano ,Harmanjot Khabra , Freiman Peixoto , Obagbemiro Elijabs Substitutes: Barreto Luis (GK), Singh Bishweshwar, Carlos Fernandes , Lobo Cavin ,Samananda Singh , Fernandes Lavino , Mascarnhas Fredy Coach: Vales Peter

Mahindra United: Sandip Nandy (GK/Capt) ,KN Ajayan ,Harpreet Singh ,Sushanth Mathew ,Andrews M Pomeyie ,Surajit Bose ,D Ravannan ,Sukhwinder Singh ,Steven Dias ,Bello Rasaq ,Douhou Sey D Pierre Substitutes : Subhashish Roy Chowdhury (GK) ,Arata Izumi ,Sushil Kumar Singh ,Manjit Singh ,Manas das ,Mohammed Rafi ,Tarif Ahmed Coach : Derrick Pereira