Tollygunge Agragami shock Mahindra United

Manaksia Tollygunge Agragami scored their first victory in the Oil PSU-seventh National Football League, shocking Mumbai champions Mahindra United 3-2 in their second match of the tournament at the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata on Thursday.

Mahindra had beaten HAL 1-0 in their opening match at home while Tollygunge had lost to East Bengal 0-2.

Both teams were locked 1-1 at half-time.

Striker Ashim Biswas put Tollygunge ahead with a fine header in the 19th minute before Mahindra restored parity through defender Odartey Lawson three minutes before the breather.

After the change of ends the Kolkata outfit came up with some inspired football and struck twice through substitute forward Laltu Das and striker Akeem, in the 54th and 67th minutes respectively.

Newly-acquired striker Monga Aby Samson of Ivory Coast team Athletico club managed to pull one back for the Mumbai outfit a few seconds before the final whistle.

After today's match, both teams have three points from two outings.

Mahindra, with a start-studded line-up and several news faces from abroad, were favourites on paper, but they failed to combine well and shone in patches only. Besides, their deep defence cracked whenever it came under pressure.

Tollygunge, who placed ahead of Mahindra in the last National League, were a determined lot from the start and took control of the proceedings as the match progressed. Both their foreign recruits, Isiaka Awoami and Akeem proved their worth unlike the foreigners in the Mahindra side. Added to Mahindra's woes, their internationals, including Debjit Ghosh, Sur Kumar Singh, R P Singh and R C Prakash, failed to get into their stride.

It was Mahindra who came near scoring first, as early as in the fifth minute, but an alert Tollygunge keeper Amar Deb smartly held a back volley by R C Prakash.

But Tollygunge settled down and forged ahead nine minutes later when Ashim Biswas headed home an accurate centre from the right by Akeem (1-0).

Stung by the reverse, Mahindra shook off their lethargy and made efforts to restore parity, but were thwarted by the alert Tollygunge defenders. Their efforts paid off three minutes from the breather when Lawson headed in a Sur Kumar Singh centre (1-1).

The second session saw the home side in full cry. They struck twice in a spell off 22 minutes to make sure of full points.

Nine minutes after the break, a combined move saw Ashim Biswas send a rasping drive from the top of the box to the Mahindra goal. Defender Debajit saved on the goalline, but Tollygunge striker Laltu Das did well to pounce on the rebound and place home - (2-1).

The third goal for the hosts came in the 77th minute. It was the best goal of the day. Collecting a pass from defender Amitava Chandra, Akeem ran through the middle, swerved past a Mahindra defender and nicely placed the ball over onrushing keeper Naseem Akhtar - (3-1).

With time running out, the Mahindra players went all out for goals but could only reduce their margin during injury time when striker Samson, who replaced Abhisek Yadav early in the second-half, shot home after dodging past a Tollygunge defender (3-2).

Teams
Tollygunge Agragami: Amar Deb, Amitava Chandra , Isiaaka Awomi, Deb Kumar Sasmal, Dipayan majumdar, Mehtab Hossain, Sandip Das Sujay Dutta and Sujay Dutta (Laltu Kumar Das), Ashim Biswas and Akeem.

Mahindra United: Naseem Akhtar, Sur Kumar Singh, O Lawson, Debjit Ghosh, Anthony Periera, James Singh, (Syed Hussain), R P Singh, Peter Starndel, R C Prakash, Abhisek Yadav (Samson).

Referee: S Bharat Moni (Karnataka).

Complete Coverage: 7th National Football League 2002-03