ITI win 14th round honours

S Ayyappa Swamy

All good things must come to an end. What goes up must come down. The 13-round record unbeaten run of F C Kochin and their sky-high morale came crashing down on a pleasant Bangalore afternoon last week. Every coach felt that there was some luck going for the Kerala outfit, but none could nail A M Sreedharan's side which went from strength to strength, but, strangely, never at the top for a lengthy period.

Now, former India player and coach of Indian Telephone Industries Mohd. Habib would perhaps pull his collar up a little higher. For, the credit of besting F C Kochin for the first time this season goes to his Bangalore outfit, which won by a solid margin of 3-1.

Nigerian George Ekeh got one goal and K Naushad, the former F C Kochin player, got the other two.

With East Bengal being held to a goalless draw by Salgaocar Sports Club, there is just a two-point needle-eye difference separating the Calcutta outfit from F C Kochin. East Bengal are on 31 points while Kochin have 29.

The one point that former champions Salgaocar earned from the tie against East Bengal saw them arrest a downward slide of four successive losses -- to Vasco, Mahindra United, State Bank of Travancore and Tollygunge Aggragami. Salgaocar now zip into Bombay to play what promises to be a hectic and entertaining match against Air-India.

These two sides play fast and attacking football, a rarity in Indian football, and always have produced some edge-of-the-seat stuff.

Mahindra United, the richest team in the country, are certainly going through the toughest of times. Injuries to key players notwithstanding, they are paying a price for not preparing a second line of attack. And coach Shabbir Ali, who is perhaps lucky to hold on to his post after two plus-five defeats in one season, would have his hands full from the 16th round when goalkeeper Virender Singh, defender Tapon Ghosh and wing-half S Venkatesh report for the pre-World Cup camp in Bangalore, from March 25.

It was humiliation and hara-kiri for the Bombay outfit, who were soundly thrashed 6-0 by defending champions Mohun Bagan, who came back after a surprise loss to State Bank of Travancore in the previous round.

Brazilian Jose Barretto was simply outstanding with three goals and R C Prakash too got one more. Currently both are on nine goals, but the Indian is likely to lose the race for the top-scorer as he too will be at the camp and is a certainty in the Indian team. National coach Sukhwinder might team him up with Bhaichung Bhutia.

Mahindra United players Naushad Moosa and Bernard swelled Mohun Bagan’s tally by putting the ball past a non-too-bemused Virender.

It is still unsure as to whom the two self-goals have been credited. Some referees have added one more to Prakash and another to Dulal Biswas. Previous rules would have had it as self-goals but under the revised ones, even a deflection off a goalbound shot is added to the striker’s tally. However, since the efforts of Moosa and Bernard appear to be clearances, it should be recorded as own-goals.

Mahindra now travel to Ludhiana where they play cellar-team Jagatjit Cotton Textile Mills.

Air-India coach Bimal Ghosh is at the end of his tethers. His frustrations are simply building up as his strikers Anthony Fernandes, Godfred Periera, Narendra Meetei, Herbert Philips, P J Jose all continue to miss chances galore. Had they converted even 10 per cent of their chances, Air-India would have been sitting atop the 12-team table. In the 14th round, a prolific Air-India were down a goal before stopper-back and impressive performer this season Arun Malhotra bailed them out. To Ghosh's consternation, key player Khalid Jamil will miss the match against Salgaocar as he was red-carded. This means it is the end to his campaign in this NFL unless he is dropped from the Pre-World Cup camp.

The three Goan teams, Salgaocar, Churchill and Vasco are bunched together. Salgaocar and Vasco, who drew with SBT at home, are on 20 points. Churchill got past JCT in an away tie and are one point behind.

Best goal: Jose Barretto’s three efforts for Mohun Bagan against Mahindra United in Calcutta.

Best match: FC Kochin losing to ITI in Bangalore

Disappointment: International and much-touted Khalid Jamil’s frustrations resulting in a red card against Tolltygunge Aggragami in Calcutta.

Results of the 14th round:

Tollygunge drew with Air-India, at Calcutta 1-1
SBT drew with Vasco 0-0, at Thiruvananthapuram
East Bengal drew goalless with Salgaocar, at Calcutta
ITI beat FC Kochin 3-1, at Bangalore
JCT lost to Churchill Bros. 0-1, at Ludhiana
Mohun Bagan beat Mahindra United 6-0, at Calcutta.

Schedule for 15th round:

March 22: SBT vs Zee Churchill, at Thiruvananthapuram; Air-India vs Salgaocar, at Bombay; FC Kochin vs Tollygunge, at Calcutta.

March 23: JCT vs Mahindra United, at Ludhiana; East Bengal vs ITI, Calcutta.

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