The Hindu : Superior goal difference helps Western Rly. enter semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 25, 2003

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Superior goal difference helps Western Rly. enter semifinals

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI APRIL 24. Western Railway knocked in three goals against a reputed Indian Airlines defence, penalty corner hitter Sunil Singh hitting the first blow via a thundering carpet drive followed by two classy field goals from skipper Chanderpal. The hard work was enough for the railway side to confirm a semifinal place on superior goal difference, despite a 3-5 defeat against the orange-and-white brigade in the 41st Bombay Gold Cup Hockey quarterfinal league game on Thursday.

Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (EME) was pushed to the third position in Pool B due to an inferior goal difference (-1) even after having won 3-2 against Sikh Regiment Centre in the first match of the day at the Mahindra stadium. Indian Airlines thus topped the pool with an all-win record, nine points from three league games and goals in abundance. The first-half struggle against Western to get the attack going and gaps in the defence will be at the back of their minds prior to a semifinal meeting with Karnataka XI. Indian Oil, pool A leader, takes on Western in the first double-leg semifinal on Friday.

Indian Airlines fielded Dilip Tirkey in the defence and Prabodh Tirkey in the midfield for the first time, an indication of its mood on Thursday when semifinal places were at stake. The presence of defenders Lazarus Barla, Rajnish Mishra and goalkeeper Ballal did not aid IA's efforts to keep Western strikers Shivender Singh and Chanderpal quiet.

After a tight first half when the railway team called the shots, the orange-white brigade found a saviour in youth international V.S. Vinay. He created the sixth goal for international Vikram Pillay (4-2) with a scintillating diagonal run at the rival defence after Sameer Dad had gained the lead (3-2) with an indirect short corner conversion. Vinay's forceful presence on the right flank took the heat off his team with ace strikers Dhanraj Pillay and Mukesh Kumar being marked and the midfield struggling to make headway. A sluggish midfield added to the pressure before the youngster showed the way out of trouble.

Despite ending up on the losing side, Western skipper Chanderpal can take credit for conceiving and executing the best among eight goals scored in this crunch game, deflecting on the run a Conroy Remedios long ball. IA goalkeeper Ballal did not react, nor did the defence. Western's attacking combine of Shanta Kumar, Chanderpal and Shivender created space at will before Vinay got into the act. Three second-half goals (Sameer, Vikram and Dhanraj) in the space of 10 minutes put IA on the victory path.

The results (quarterfinal league): EME (Jalandhar) 3 (Gurmail Singh 2, Avtar Singh) bt SRC (New Delhi) 2 (Suman Kumar, Baljit Singh).

Indian Airlines 5 (Mukesh Kumar, Arjun Hallappa, Sameer Dad, Vikram Pillay, Dhanraj Pillay) bt Western Railway 3 (Chanderpal 2, Sunil Singh).

Friday's match: Indian Oil vs Western Railway (first leg semifinal).

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