Mumbai Warriors U-19 and Mumbai Port Trust settle for a draw

by Kaushal Shukla September 11, 2015

Mumbai Port Trust drew 1-1 with Mumbai Warriors U-19 in a game with few chances to score for either side in the 1st Division of the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) on Wednesday, 9th September 2015.

Goals either side of half time for either side meant the points were shared in what was a fair reflection of the game over the eighty minutes of play.

Both teams took a while to get into their groove and the game endured a dull start. The teams lacked any sort of cutting edge and struggled to create any clear cut chances in the opening exchanges as most of the moves broke down in and around the penalty box.

Eventually a mistake from a Mumbai Warriors midfielder resulted in the first goal, when he was robbed by a MPT midfielder who set up Praptesh Naik in front of goal as the forward made no mistakes in firing the ball past the goalkeeper and giving Mumbai Port Trust a crucial lead in a tight game.

Mumbai Port Trust managed to cling on to the lead till the half time interval and could have added onto the lead in the remainder of the first half, but were denied by some last ditch defending from the Warriors.

Mumbai Warriors came storming out in the second half and had the Mumbai Port Trust goal under siege. The Warriors were extremely unfortunate not to have equalized the score in the 49th minute when they were twice denied by the crossbar in space of seconds. Initially, Aditya Dalvi’s header from point blank range was brilliantly tipped onto the crossbar from the Mumbai Port Trust goalkeeper Sain More, before the rebound was fired onto the crossbar once again a few seconds later as Mumbai Port Trust were let off the hook.

But the woodwork couldn’t come to Mumbai Port Trust’s rescue three minutes later when a neat piece of play just outside the right side of the box saw Deepak Apte being played through on goal before the forward smashed the shot into the bottom corner to get his side on level terms in the game.

Mumbai Warriors though couldn’t press home the momentum that they had built in the second half and soon fizzed out as the half progressed.

There were few chances for either side to grab the winner as both teams had to settle for a 1-1 draw, a result which was just about fair keeping in mind the performances of the two teams involved.