Ten men Kenkre FC held by Mumbai FC

by Kaushal Shukla December 5, 2015

Mumbai FC held ten men Kenkre FC to a 0-0 draw in the Maharashtra zone game of the U-18 I-League at Cooperage on Saturday evening.

The game took a while to come to the boil after a sluggish start from both teams until the 17th minute when Kashif Sayyed forced the Mumbai FC goalkeeper Ubaid Ali into a fine save.

Three minutes later, it was Mumbai FC’s turn to test the Kenkre FC goalkeeper when Rohan Shukla forced a decent save off the Kenkre Custodian from a slightly tight angle.

Mumbai FC got hold of the ball in midfield but found it tough to create chances against a well organised Kenkre outfit that in the 29th min went agonisingly close to taking the lead as Emaad Nadkar’s shot from the edge of the box took a deflection before looping just inches over the crossbar.

Mumbai FC were finding it difficult against the pace of Kenkre FC and were once again caught out in the 40th minutes when Ashraf Ansari managed to sneak behind the Mumbai FC defence and fire a shot at the Mumbai FC goal which was kept out by the finger tips of Ubaid Ali.

The game remained deadlocked at the break as Mumbai FC enjoyed a lion’s share of possession, but it was Kenkre who looked liklier to score.

The second half was more of the same as Kenkre once again got behind the Mumbai FC defence as Ashraf Ansari struck the upright just four minutes into the second half.

However Kenkre were dealt with a huge blow in the 69th minute as Kashif Sayyed got his marching orders following a second yellow card.

Despite going down to ten men Kenkre didn’t bog down and were pretty much a force in the game. Kenkre’s Nathan Fernandes almost scored a truly magical goal when he went past 3-4 Mumbai FC defenders to fire a shot on target. The shot though was straight at the Mumbai FC goalkeeper who gobbled it up.

The ten men of Kenkre FC decided to take a point and sat back in the last few minutes, but the chances kept on coming for Kenkre as Ashraf Ansari missed a golden chance to win it for Kenkre.

Ansari was clear on goal but delayed his final attempt allowing Melroy Assisi to get back and clear the danger.

Kenkre looked the liklier of the two teams to snatch the points late on but failed to take the chances which fell their way.

The referee blew for full time as ten men Kenkre earned a credible point against Mumbai FC who looked sluggish on the day.

But the Kenkre coach would be disappointed for not getting the three points despite a numerical disadvantage. The draw keeps Mumbai FC above Kenkre FC by one point.