Crisp Western Railways hammer high flying PIFA Colaba

by Kaushal Shukla March 14, 2015

Western Railways brought a high flying Premier Indian Football Academy (PIFA) Colaba back to earth after a 6-0 drubbing in an early morning game of the MDFA Elite Division at Cooperage on 13th March 2015.

Both teams came into the game with confidence after winning on their previous outings. PIFA Colaba overcame KSA to move into the second place in the while Western Railways were fresh off a 3-0 thrashing of GMSC.

Western Railways were quick out of the blocks and began with a high tempo. PIFA Colaba clearly surprised by their opposition’s quick start failed to cope with the Western Railways attacks.

Western Railways made their quick start count in the 12th minute, when Keni Stan C. opened the scoring for the inter-Railway champions.

Keni Stan C. stunned PIFA Colaba again just a minute later as he put Western Railways 2-0 up with fine finish.

PIFA Colaba had no clue what had hit them and were looking extremely rattled as Western Railways were threatening to run riot.

Just as PIFA Colaba seemed to have stemmed the flow of Western Railways attacks, they scored a third in the 30th minute through Charanjeet Singh.

The Colaba outfit showed some signs of recovery late in the first half but failed to make amends in terms of the score line which made a sorry reading for the I-League two side.

Western Railways went into the interval, firmly in the driver’s seat as their early blitz completely took apart PIFA Colaba.

Western Railways started the second half on the front foot as Keni Stan C. nearly got his hat-trick in the 50th minute when he found himself in a one on one position but his effort was too weak to trouble James Swamy in goal for PIFA.

PIFA Colaba’s in form striker Elvis Ozawara did brilliantly to force a save off Grnto Antao with a looping header five minutes later as the Nigerian seemed determined to kick start a comeback for his side.

But any hopes of a PIFA Colaba recovery were dashed in the 59th minute when Reuben D’Souza beautifully finished past James Swamy after a crisp move from the inter-Railways champions saw him through on goal.

The goal deflated PIFA Colaba as Western Railways began to play with a lot of swagger. PIFA Colaba made two changes to stop the rot as Agil Almeida and Roshan Karmaran came on for Hemant Patil and Pranay Daniel respectively around the 70 minute mark.

The changes failed to aid the ailing PIFA Colaba cause as Western Railways opened up their defence yet again when Reuben D’Souza broke free on the right flank to drive at the PIFA defence. But his brilliant run lacked a finish as he put his shot wide of the gaping target.

The morning went from bad to worse as Charanjeet Singh piled on more misery on the Colaba side with a goal in the 77th minute to make it 5-0 in Western Railway’s favour

Western Railways replaced first half hero Keni Stan C. in the 80th minute with Cleyton D’Souza. Keni had a fantastic game and set Western Railways on their way with two which fire goals in the first half

Just as we thought that PIFA managed to avoid further embarrassment, Western Railways struck again as Avinash D.found the top corner with a stunning strike from twnty five yards out in stoppage time.

That kick was the last of the game as the referee drew PIFA Colaba out of their misery.

The loss was a huge dent to PIFA’s confidence ahead of their I-League second division campaign.

The win lifted Western Railways to fifth place in the Elite Division standings ahead of Mumbai Customs on goal difference.