Ten men Indian Navy hammer G.M. Sports to cement top spot

by Kaushal Shukla October 7, 2015

Indian Navy continued their superb start to the season as they cruised to a 5-1 win over G.M. Sports despite playing an hour with ten men in an Elite Division game of the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) at Cooperage on Monday, 5th October 2015. The win meant Navy maintain their hundred per cent start to the season winning all the three games in their season.

After a quiet start to the game, Indian Navy were given a great opportunity to take the lead when Britto’s cross from the left was handled by G.M. Sports’ Sanoj Yadav as referee Rahul Pawar had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Sunil Naik had no problems in scoring from the spot and give Indian Navy the lead in the 14th minute.

G.M. Sports almost gave an instant response to going behind couple of minutes later, when the Navy goalkeeper Vishnu VK had to dive at full stretch to stop Clyde Norohna’s vicious drive from creeping under the crossbar. Indian Navy took the attempt as a warning and tightened up at the back.

The league leaders doubled their lead in the 26th minute when GPK Sharma beat the offside trap to get on the end of a long ball from V. Lalchhuanmawia and keep his composure well to finish past the G.M. Sports goalkeeper.

Just when one thought Navy had a firm grip over the game, Sunil Naik was sent off for allegedly abusing the referee. The sending off didn’t go too well with the Navy players as they hurled referee Rahul Pawar.

But the sending off didn’t affect Navy’s focus as they fired in a third goal through Riyadh B. in the 34th minute. Navy continued to control proceedings with relative ease despite the numerical advantage and went into the break with a healthy 3-0 lead.

The red card gave G.M. Sports hope going into the second half and it seemed they came right back into the reckoning when Steve Kouassi put G.M. Sports on the scoresheet in the 53rd minute. But Navy stepped up their game and dashed any hopes of a G.M.S.C comeback when V. Lalchhuanmawia netted Navy’s fourth just five minutes later.

Indian Navy sealed a famous win with a fifth goal from Bibake Thapa in the 77th minute as they cemented their spot at the top of the Elite Division table.

Indian Navy were once again at their ruthless and efficient best as the early pace setters in the league proved to be a league above their opponents on the day.