Catholic Gymkhana played with plenty of grit and determination as they fought back to overcome IIT ‘B’, Powai 2-1 and register their fourth successive victory in the Mumbai Football Association (MFA) Second Division league, played at the Neville D’Souza ground, Bandra on Friday.
Mokshit Naidu put IIT ahead in the eighth minute before Mohit Chandiramani scored the equalizer in the 17th minute. Substitute Omkar Shende scored Catholic Gynkhana’s decisive winner in the third minute of the additional period.
Both Catholic Gymkhana and IIT started in aggressive attacking fashion, but the latter created the better chances initially, but missed some easy chances and paid dearly as they conceded a soft goal to trail 0-1. Against the run of play IITians took the lead when Mokshit’s feeble placement surprisingly slipped through the diving Catholic Gymkhana custodian Ronit More.
Catholic Gymkhana regrouped and got their act together and mounted raids towards the IIT citadel. It did not take them too long to cancel out IIT’s lead when Kurt Baptista sent in a swerving low shot across the rival box. Ralph Cardoz foxed the rival defenders as he cleverly ran over the ball and let it through for Mohit unmarked on the left side who did well to slot home the equalizer.
Later, Ralph wasted a golden opportunity. With an open goal in front he unnecessarily went for power and his shot bounced back from the horizontal bar and the teams went into the break on level terms.
On resumption, Catholic Gymkhana enjoyed more ball possession to completely dominate play and had their strikers been more accurate with their attempts at goal they could have won by a handsome margin.
But, Catholic Gymkhana were rewarded with a late winner when substitute Omkar Shende tapped in Taufiq Shaikh’s measured lob from the right seconds before the final whistle to secure a tense victory for the team and to collect the full three points.
Catholic Gymkhana now have 12 points in their kitty.