Southern Railway made it two wins out of two, defeating FCI 1-0, in the St. Joseph’s-CFA senior division league here on Friday.
The Railwaymen had to battle hard against a tough opponent which defended resolutely and threatened to attack whenever an opportunity presented itself.
After a bright opening 10 minutes for Railway, FCI came into the match and almost scored when Prem Kumar’s lofted through ball found Kolandhai Yesu on the left and his cross across the face of the goal was almost finished by Hari Krishnan.
Breaking the deadlock
Krishnan and Yesu continued to attack with vigour, but it was the Railwaymen who broke the deadlock when ‘man of the match’ P.C. Riju bundled home the rebound after his initial effort was saved by the goalkeeper.
The second half was characterised by scrappy play as the teams’ passing left much to be desired.
Of the two, FCI came closest to scoring when centre-back R. Shivapriyan’s header off Ashok Kumar’s corner hit the crossbar and the resultant rebound was cleared off the line by T. Joseph.
Though a few crunchy tackles frayed tempers towards the end, Southern Railway experienced little difficulty in holding out for a win.
The results:
Senior division: Southern Railway 1 (P.C. Riju 35) bt FCI 0.
First division: Nethaji 2 (Singadevan 29, Divakar 57) bt Challengers Union 0.
