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Eastern Railways into the semis
BIRATNAGAR, JAN 14 - Eastern Railways, Kolkata entered the semifinals of the Mahendra Gold Cup football tournament beating New Road Team (NRT) 1-0 in a volatile match played here today at the Shahid Maidan.
K Biswas converted a spotkick in the 60th minute of the ill-tempered match to seal the victory for the Kolkata outfit and set semifinal showdown with Tribhuvan Club on Thursday. Mahendra Police Club (MPC) have already taken the other spot for the final to be played on Saturday.
In an evenly matched contest, foul by Binaya Choudhary on R Malik inside the penalty area proved fatal for NRT. Choudhary brought down Malik, later declared man of the match, when the latter was charging in the penalty area in the 60th minute. Referee Madhu Sudan Khanal promptly pointed to the spot and K Biswas coolly converted the spotkick to guide Eastern Railways to victory.
NRT’s poor finishing also didn’t help their cause either. Captain Hari Thakuri missed a simple chance in the 43rd minute of the match. Binod Lama made a brilliant move and found Thakuri after beating the Kolkata goalie K Saurav. But Thakuri hit to the right of the post with the open post at his mercy. The height, rather lack of it, of NRT forwards Thakuri and Gudia Rai also pegged NRT back as they couldn’t capitalise on aerial crosses.
The NRT players played aggressive game from the onset. Spurred by the partisan crowd and tinkered by the rough game of Eastern Railways they seemed to lose their cool. The Kolakata team resorted to playacting after taking the vital lead which didn’t please the NRT coach Raju Shakya.
Shakya blasted the referee for failing to check the Kolkata players. " They ate up some vital time of play in the second half and the referee could have done better," he told The Kathmandu Post. He however conceded the failure of his players to play superior game. " The boys didn’t play satisfactorily and the back to back match didn’t help our cause either," said Shakya referring to the scheduling which made NRT play two matches in as many days.
Eastern Railways coach Devdas Goswami wasn’t pleased with his players either. "We are here to play football and should do that in a cool and fair manner.
They are cheating the paying public by doing all these things," he said referring to playacting.
NRT started the match strongly and dominated the first half. But Thakuri’s miss and a couple of good saves from Kolkata goalie Biswas ensured that the teams were tied going into the break.
NRT made desperate bid to equalise but couldn’t breach the defence of the opponents who were content to save the lead. Bimal Karki who replaced Ramesh Sinkaman in the second half connected a brilliant header in the 78th minute but S Bit of Eastern Railways cleared it.
The referee had to step in to check the frustrated NRT players from assaulting the Kolkata players indulged in acting. He had to produce the yelow card seven times with both the teams sharing the spoils. Four of the visiting players were booked while three from NRT were cautioned. Posted on: 2004-01-15 03:40
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