Western Railways and Central Bank of India share the spoils in the MDFA Elite Division

by Kaushal Shukla January 23, 2015

Western Railways and Central Bank of India played out a 1-1 draw in a tight encounter of the MDFA Elite Division at Cooperage on 22nd January 2015. After a first half devoid of any goal mouth action, the second half had more drama as both teams went home with a point.

Central Bank of India were back in action after recently beating Dena Bank 2-0. Western Railways were in action after a long time with their last appearance coming in the RCF Premier Cup.

Both teams cancelled each other out in the opening quarter of the game with a few long range efforts the best that both sides could create.

Central Bank came the closest to taking the lead in a first half which had very few things to report, when Hitesh Chodankar struck an absolute belter of a shot at the Western Railways goal, which was brilliantly saved to his right by the Western Railways shot stopper Lalit Parmar in the 26th minute.

Three minutes later, Western Railways thought they should have had a penalty when their striker was blocked by the CBI defender. The inter-Railway champions might have had a case there, but the referee was not in a great position to spot it as he waved to play on, much to CBI’s relief.

It was a cagey affair, with both teams hardly threatening in the remainder of the first half as the teams went to the break at 0-0. The strikers of both teams were caught offside way too many times and both the teams lacked the creativity to make a difference in the scoreline.

But the second half started with a bang as Central Bank of India took the lead just 5 minutes into the second half, as Hitesh Chodankar’s strike flew into the top corner. It was a brilliant striker from the CBI No.7 which gave CBI the all-important lead in a very tight game.

CBI nearly doubled that lead in the 58th minute when a free kick from Johnson D’Silva was acrobatically tipped away from goal by Lalit Parmar for a corner for CBI.

Western Railways made a substitution in the 61st minute replacing Sadanand Nirmal with Saheb Singh with a view of getting a foothold back in the game which was winging the CBI’s way.

CBI were beginning to create plenty of chances, as Johnson D’Silva’s volley from a corner was punched away from the Western Railways goalkeeper three minutes later.

In the 69th minute, Anil Pawar of the Western Railways forced a fine low save out of Sarfaraz Ansari after he was neatly played in space. The chance seemed to have spurred Western Railways on as they had a bit more swagger in their play.

The improvement in their play was instantly rewarded when, Somi P.T. drew Western Railways level in the 71st minute, after firing home a low cross from their right flank.

The second half was completely opposite the first half, which lacked any kind of goal mouth action. But as the game approached the full time whistle, the fizz went out of the game as both teams weren’t keen to risk the point in hand for all three.

The game ended level pegging as both teams seemed to be satisfied with a point from the day’s work. The draw was the fair result in an overall dull game lacking creativity.