RBI upset Southern Railway 3-1 in the St. Joseph’s Chennai Football Association senior division league here on Thursday. Two goals by M. Mukeshwaran and L. Vijay in the opening 20 minutes and a late injury-time strike by M. Ramkumar gave the bankmen a rousing start to their league campaign.
The railwaymen, missing the services of star striker P.C. Riju and Charles Anandraj, both of whom are at the Indian Railways camp for the Santosh Trophy, hardly looked like the better players they were expected to be. Their play was dreary all through the first half. Though they managed around half-a-dozen strikes on the goal, none troubled the goalie.
RBI scored its first goal when Mukeshwaran slotted in the rebound off a missed penalty by Shivapriyan. The second was though an easy tap in by Vijay off a cross from the right flank by Harikrishnan.
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The railway side showed some urgency in the second half and even pulled back a goal in the 59th minute when Pradeep’s innocuous drive from outside the penalty area was let in by RBI goal keeper Naresh Kumar. Midway through the second half, Shivapriyan had to make a splendid tackle to deny forward Elamurugan who was put through on goal by Sirajuddin.
But a late goal by Ramkumar put paid to any hopes that the railway side had of salvaging a draw.
“We were missing a few players,” said Southern Railway coach Jacob Varghese. “Still we should have won the game. The early goals we conceded pulled the team down.”
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The results:
Senior div: RBI 3 (M. Mukeshwaran 8, L. Vijay 20, M. Ramkumar 90+1) bt Southern Railway 1 (M. Pradeep 59).
First div: SAI 3 (Vijayan 62, Bibetta Radhakrishnan 70, 77) bt YMSC 1 (N. Vijay 15).