Air India trash Western Railway in MDFA Elite Division.

by Galwin Pereira December 22, 2016

On Wednesday, 21^st December 2016, Elite Division match took place on Cooperage Stadium where Western Railway, the new champions of the recent 7th edition of RCF Premier Cup met Air India who lost to the Central Railways in the same tournament. The match proved to be one-sided for the men in Red who brought down the Yellow team by a full-time scoreline of 5-0.

In the evening, with both teams displaying a high profile attacking football at both the ends took a twist during the 17^th minute when Air India threw a counter attack against the railways as Reed Santos assisted a through ball to Pratik Koli  resulting an opener for the Red Army in the near left bracket of the goal post leaving Grinto K Antao no chance but collect the ball from the back of the net.

Later in the 25th minute, an injury to the defender of the Western Railways brought them down to 10 men where the Red team took advantage. In the 27th minute once again, Reed Santos found Mrunal Tandel just outside the box who fired it into the goal for the Air India at the right far post.

Reed Santos continued the rhythm with the ball passing it on to Pratik Koli who was taken down by Clayton D’souza. The collision cost Western Railway a penalty & a red card to Clayton from Referee Rahul Gupta.

Mrunal Tandel stepped out to take the penalty and placed it neatly on the right bottom side of the post but was beautifully saved by Grinto K Antao.

Into the 38^th minute, Western Railway continued to play one man down.

Just before the half time whistle Prakash Thorat from the left flank helped Pratik Koli score his brace in style as he nutmegged the goalie in a one on one situation which made it 3-0 for the Red Army during half time.

The half time team talk didn’t really work for the Yellow outfit as in the 52^nd minute a left-footed strike from Reed Santos probably the Man Of The Match got a smart assist from Aaron D’costa converting it into the fourth goal of the match.

Minutes after the goal, the player of the moment Reed Santos got into the referee’s notebook for a foul on defender Vijesh Vijayan and earned a yellow card.

Later in the dying minutes of the game, a corner was awarded to the red team which was converted by substitute Shrikant Molangiri in the center of the goal making it 5-0 at full time.