After a dull first-half, RCF’s Troy Nunes finally got the breakthrough in the second-half to lead his side to a memorable win against Central Railway.

Both the teams came into the match for a much needed win which would take them out of danger zone. The first-half was a dull half, where RCF and Central Railway not created a single geniune chance of scoring.

In the final-third, somehow both the outfit managed to keep each other’s attacking spearheads at bay. This led to a goalless first-half between RCF and Central Railway.

In the second-half,  the match finally became lively. The tempo of both the sides increased as the match started to progress. It was none other than Troy Nunes who opened the scoring on the 65th minute for RCF.

Kevin Patrick and Arving Kanojia had a fantastic link-up play in the final third, where Kevin brilliantly set up Troy with a precise through ball. Troy took his time and slot his effort past the Central Railway’s goalkeeper Pradip Kumar.

Central Railway pushed their players forward in order to get the equalizer. On the 88th minute of the match Central Railway’s Sumesh Nair put a dangerous ball into the box through a free kick, which was headed just wide by Ariz Qureshi who was left unmarked.

Troy could have got his second of the game in the last minute, but his right footed shot from the edge of the box went just wide off the left hand post.

RCF held their nerves in the last stages of the game to register an incredible win

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Both R.C.F and O.N.G.C came into Wednesday afternoon’s fixture on the back of defeats. While an under-performing Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (R.C.F) were defeated 3-1 by Mumbai Customs, O.N.G.C were dismantled 6-0 by Air India, in a result, which sent shock-waves around the city. Also, neither of the two competitors had seen wins in their last two games; O.N.G.C’s record of one loss and one draw gave them an upper-hand (on form) over strugglers R.C.F, who were winless in three games.

R.C.F lined-up in a flat 4-4-2 system, whereas O.N.G.C featured in a 4-2-3-1 formation; both sides started-off cautiously, trying not to commit too many men forward in the initial stages of the match, which resulted in just one goal-scoring opportunity being created from both ends, first by R.C.F’s Sooraj Hakim, whose cross from right-wing to the near-post was met by Kevin Patrick, who failed to convert from a tight angle in the 5th minute; 4 minutes later, O.N.G.C came close to an opener, when a miss control from R.C.F left-back Sandeep Upadhyay was collect by O.N.G.C forward Enock Annan, who found Kailash Patil inside the box, but the latter’s looping header went off target. As the game progressed, both sides became more-and-more open in their play, and as result created a host of chances; on a similar occasion in the 20th minute, both R.C.F strikers combined well to give their side a much needed breakthrough, Kevin Patrick’s flicked header sent Troy Nunes clear on goal as he slotted the ball past O.N.G.C goalkeeper’s left.

The goal didn’t affect the course of the game, and after failing to convert from a number of chances in the opening 25 minutes, O.N.G.C found a way to R.C.F goal when a cross from Parminder Singh to the near post area was tapped in by Enock Annan in the 28^th minute to make it 1-1. A poor defensive structure of O.N.G.C in the first-half gave R.C.F a number of chances to run into channels, and thus invite a number of fouls in dangerous areas, which gave them a number of chances to score from which they failed to convert. The final chance of the half was presented to R.C.F’s Troy Nunes, who having rounded the goalkeeper failed to put the ball in the net from a narrow angle.

O.N.G.C began the first-half on a frantic pace and took R.C.F by a storm as they found themselves a goal up (2-1) inside 5 minutes of the second-45 minutes courtesy of a goal from Praveen Sharma, who tapped-in unmarked from a corner taken by Jagdeep Singh in the 47th minute. O.N.G.C were presented with a bonus to extend their lead to two in the 55th minute, when Lalchhuanawma was fouled inside the box and O.N.G.C were awarded a penalty, but Enock Annan failed to convert as he blasted the ball over then prone figure of the goal. As the match reached the 75 minute mark, it was clear that how it has fell short to maintain the early intensity of the first-half with R.C.F recording a number of failed attempts to get back into the game.

By the time, the referee Rahul Gupta blew the full-time whistle, O.N.G.C had got past the hurdle of R.C.F, who lost for the 4th time in a row. Whereas, the story for O.N.G.C is happy one as they get back to winning ways.

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Ashrafali Makandar opened the scoring early in the first-half before Deepak Irmali made it 2-0 at the stroke of half-time. Arvind Kanojia did pulled one back late in the second-half for R.C.F, but Rinaldo’s brilliance once again restored the parity for Mumbai Customs after a late solo goal.

Mumbai Customs made a dream start when it took them just 5 minutes to open the scoring. Ashrafali Makandar was in right place at the right time to bury his shot into the back of net from the edge of the box.

R.C.F seemed to be clueless in front of Mumbai Custom’s defender. The backline consistently kept on frustrating R.C.F’s forwards.

It took R.C.F almost half an hour to register their first shot on target. Sandeep Updahyay’s header rattled the bar, which was their best opportunity to equalize in the first-half.

Minutes later, Rinaldo Fernandes almost scored Mumbai Custom’s second goal of the game when his shot was cleared off from the line by Sandeep Upadhyay.

The last ten minutes of the first-half was dominated by Customs. Rinaldo Fernandes and Ashrafali Makandar, both came close to find the back of the net before Deepak Irmali finally scored Custom’s second goal of the game after a fantastic ball from Akshay Saptoji.

The goal came right at the stroke of half-time. R.C.F’s custodian Vatsal Bhatia failed to judge Deepak’s left footed strike as he saw his shot comfortably beating R.C.F’s number 1.

Mumbai Customs went into the break with a two goal advantage in hope to better their performance in the second-half.

It was no doubt that R.C.F were wasteful in front of the goal today. On the hour mark, Troy’s brilliantly taken corner was headed over the bar by Arvind Kanojia, who was surprisingly left unmarked by Customs.

Five minutes later, Arvind Kanojia once again failed to deal with Customs defense, as he wasted a great opportunity after a beautiful link-up play with Kevin Patrick.

R.C.F finally managed to pull one back in the stoppage time when Kevin Patrick was brought down by Sandesh puthran inside the box. Referee Rajesh Kanojia perfectly spotted the incident and awarded R.C.F with a penalty.

Arvind Kanojia stepped up and superbly placed his penalty into the top right corner to cut short the deficit.

With only a minute to go, Rinaldo Fernandes wrapped up the game, after a brilliant solo run straight from the half-line the striker comprehensively managed to beat the goalkeeper to give Mumbai Customs all three points.

It was a bad performance from R.C.F. Had they converted half of their chances the final result could have been much better.

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