Income Tax played with solid determination and ground out a hard-fought 1-0 win against Reserve Bank of India in an evenly contested Elite (Corporate) Division match of the Mumbai Football Association (MFA) League 2022-2023 and played at the Neville D’Souza ground, Bandra on Friday.
Both Income Tax and Reserve Bank slugged it out and created plenty of goal-scoring chances but the first half finished with neither team finding the net. However, in the second half, Income Tax’s prolific and consistent striker Henderson Dias did well to fire home the decisive winning goal to secure a deserving win for his team.
Earlier, the First Division match played between Rizvi Ceramics and Future Stars Academy was abandoned. Rizvi player Ariz Arif Qureshi for a rough tackle was booked by referee Kishor Pujari in the 45th minute and was shown a second yellow for dissent in the 59th minute. But, the offending player Qureshi refused to leave the field of play and the referee’s after waiting for 15 minutes decicded to abandon the match. At the time the match was called off, Future Stars Academy was leading 3-0 with strikers Rudolf D’Souza, Alex Jena and Gaurav Shinde scoring one goal each to give their team a healthy lead.
In another First Division encounter, Springfield FC showed good understanding and charged to a facile 4-1 win against Bombay Gymkhana Colts. For Springfield Nihal M. scored two goals while Mayur Bhabal and Aman Gupta struck one each, while Bombay Gymkhana Colts pulled one back through Sohrab Mehta.
Results – Third Div: Mangesh SA 2 (Aditya Sawant 2) drew with First Goal FC 2 (Yadnesh Meher, Parth Ghargh).
Dazzlers FA 3 (Aniket Wankhede, Gavin D’Souza, Franklin Pereira) beat South Mumbai FA ‘B’ 0.
SFA Foundation 1 (Prince Rajak) drew with CFCI Hedgewar Boys 1 (Anay Desai).
First Div: Mumbai United FC 3 (Hritik Tripathi 2, Sheldon Rego) beat Soccer A-Z 2 (Remy Fernandes 2).
Springfield FC 4 (Nihal M. 2, Mayur Bhabal, Aman Gupta) beat Bombay Gymkhana Colts 1 (Sohrab Mehta).
Elite Div: Income Tax 1 (Henderson Dias) beat Reserve Bank of India 0.