Sensational Western Railways comeback floors ONGC

by Kaushal Shukla May 22, 2015

Western Railways staged a stunning comeback to shock heavyweights ONGC in a 3-2 win in the Elite Division of the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) at Cooperage on Friday, 22nd May 2015. The loss dented ONGC’s title hopes giving Air India the edge in the race for the title.

The game got off to a bright start as ONGC had a great chance to take the lead in the very first minute when Parminder Singh who managed to get behind the Western Railways defense and cut back to Akshar V.S who failed keep his shot on target.

Four minutes later, Anil Pawar very nearly picked out Charanjeet Singh at the other end with a cross from Western Railways’ right flank.

But it was ONGC who made the breakthrough in the 7th minute when Karan Atwal beautifully picked out Parminder Singh’s run with a long pass, allowing the ONGC forward to keep his composure and fire past Jagroop Singh in the Western Railways goal.

Western Railways had a great chance to script a perfect response just two minutes later, when the ONGC defence switched off in anticipation of an offside flag which never came, allowing Kenistan C. a free run at goal only to see his final effort past an onrushing Ubaid C.K bounce wide of the target.

ONGC were the sharper of the two sides in front of goal, as the railwaymen seem to lack a cutting edge in attack in the early parts of the game.

That extra sharpness in ONGC’s play was rewarded in the 29th minute when some neat work from Parminder Singh set Kailash Patil free on the right wing. The ONGC skipper kept sent in a pin point cross which was put away by Parminder Singh to put his side 2-0 up with his second goal of the game.

The second goal slightly deflated Western Railways as ONGC took control on proceedings and threatened to run away with it. But a loss of concentration in the ONGC midfield, allowed Western Railways to raid them and slip a ball through to Charanjeet Singh who made no mistake in reducing the deficit leaving the game brilliantly poised at 2-1 at half time.

Buoyed by their late first half strike, Western Railways started the second half on the front foot but missed two glorious opportunities in the opening ten minutes of the second half to get on level terms.

But they weren’t to be denied an equalizing goal in the 64th minute when substitute Clayton D’Souza sweetly controlled a pass at the edge of the box and drill it into the bottom corner beyond Ubaid C.K’s reach.

ONGC who were shell-shocked by the Western Railways fight back, brought on experienced Dharmesh Patel in place Tarif Ahammad just before Jagroop Singh had done brilliantly well to deny substitute Nitesh Monde to regain the lead for ONGC.

But it was Western Railways who took the lead in the 74th minute when a regulation cross from the right flank found its way to Kenistan C. who in his second attempt controlled it to slot past the ONGC goalkeeper and complete a stunning comeback and put Western Railways 3-2 up.

Despite ONGC’s efforts in the dying minutes of the half they failed to conjure up an equalizer as Western Railways recorded a memorable victory which severely dented ONGC’s title bid.

Western Railways brilliantly pounced on rare defensive errors from ONGC and managed to match them on the day, resulting in this huge upturn in the MDFA Elite Division.