MS Police stuns Mumbai Customs 2-1

by Siddharth Yadav December 3, 2017

2nd December 2017, Mumbai: In a thrilling contest, MS (Maharashtra State) Police stunned an in-form Mumbai Customs side 2-1 at Mumbai Football Arena, Andheri to register their first win of MDFA – Mumbai District Football Association Elite Division 2017-18 campaign.

Mumbai Customs was left in agony after the final-whistle for failing to convert the chances. Throughout the match, Customs had a number of opportunities and to summarise it, they dominated MS Police in ball possession too but didn’t manage to break their resilience over the course of ninety minutes.

Customs had a bright start. In the 3rd minute, defender Joshua Vessoakar found in-form Ashrafali Makandar at the edge of the box with a fine long ball, the number 20 kept his composure on the ball and place his effort past Aakash Vharamble to put Customs in front.

MSP responded positively to Customs’ goal as they started to take control of the game. After Sagar Bhosle came close to score, it was Kailash Pardhi in the 29th minute who fired in the equalizer with a fine strike. Suddenly, the pressure was on Customs now.

Customs’ midfielder Jinto Jose had to be sidelined for a while after getting injured in an MSP free-kick which left him bleeding. After receiving treatment, the number 8 was back on the field. Midway into the first-half, goalscorer Ashrafali wasted a huge opportunity when his attempted lob was easily denied by goalkeeper Aakash Vharamble.

That miss came back to haunt Customs. MSP’s pressure and hard-work paid off in the stroke of half-time when Customs’ defender Sajjan Alam, unfortunately, turned the ball in his own net which put MSP’s noses in front at half-time. The second-half was all about a resilient defending by MSP.

The backline of Bipin Jadhav, Akshay Shinde and Arunava displayed an incredible performance at the back to get all three points for the MSP, their first triumph of the season. MSP could have doubled their lead when a fine ball played across the goal by Sameer Shinde almost found an unmarked Sagar Bhosle in the penalty box.

Another huge chance was wasted by Customs in the last stages of the match. Substitute Nazeef Chembakassery’s delicate through ball found Mathias Coutinho who had only the goalkeeper to beat but his attempted shot only managed to hit the parameters board.

MSP defended for their lives for the whole second-half to complete a memorable victory at the Mumbai Football Arena.