Catholic Gymkhana played with grit and determination and staged a gallant fight back to overcome a 0-1 first deficit and record a fighting 2-1 victory against The Sports Gurukul in a Second Division Group-C match of the Mumbai Football Association (MFA) League 2023-2024 and played at the Karnatak SA ground, Cross Maidan.
Aakash Gavankar gave Sports Gurukul a 1-0 half-time lead. In the second session, an own goal by Kapil S. helped Catholic Gymkhana draw level before Merwyn Fernandes scored the winning goal towards the end of the match.
The Roy Fernandes coached Catholic Gymkhana has now registered their fifth successive win and with a tally of 15 points they occupy pole position in this group.
Catholic Gymkhana outfit adopted their usual attacking approach, but faced quite a strong challenge from The Sports Gurukul team, who put up a dogged defence to deny the rival attackers from scoring a goal and taking the advantage. Goalkeeper Yaseer Ansari, had a good game and made several timely saves to thwart the Catholic Gymkhana strikers from scoring too many goals and run away with the match.
The Sports Gurukul side fought hard and against the run of play caught the Catholic Gymkhana defence on the wrong foot by scoring the opening goal of the match in the 30-minute to snatch the lead. From a free-kick striker Gavankar sneaked in and firmly headed past goalkeeper Vipul Pagdhare to give Sports Gurukul a 1-0 half-time lead.
Catholic Gymkhana were unlucky as they were denied a penalty when attacking midfielder Merwyn Fernandes who was advancing dangerously towards the rival goal was hacked down by a Sports Gurukul defender inside the box on the stroke of the half time whistle. However, referee Ubaid Ali surprisingly failed to notice the infringement and allowed Sports Gurukul to go unpunished.
The sporting Catholic Gymkhana players protested but took that bad decision in their stride and then they came back stronger in the second session and exerted pressure on the Sports Gurukul and scored twice during this period to troop out worthy winners.
In the fifth minute on resumption Catholic Gymkhana got the equalizer courtesy and own goal, when Kapil S. deflected the ball into his own goal. Later, Fernandes did well to control a through pass and with a deft touch slotted the ball past goalkeeper Ansari, to give Catholic Gymkhana the lead and a crucial win.
Results – Second Div: Catholic Gymkhana 2 (Merwyn Fernandes, OG-Kapil S.) beat The Sports Gurukul 1 (Aakash Gavankar).
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