Manoj Lokande strike sees Navy through
Mumbai, September 18: A 60th minute strike by veteran Manoj Lokhande gave Indian Navy their first win, albeit by the narrowest of margins in their Mumbai Hockey Super League match against Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers at the Mahindra Stadium in Mumbai today. The three points they earned helped them enhance their tally to five points. They had shared points earlier with BEG (Pune) and Western Railway. RCF who had started with a bang beating Maharashtra State Police in their very first outing, dominated the proceedings throughout but failed to capitalize and paid the penalty. They also earned five penalty corners but lack of ideas in executing them, proved to be their undoing.
RCF had a golden opportunity when striker B.K.Muthanna came across an open goal midway through the second half. Navy keeper Kalu Ram had partially blocked a stiff try by Monish Rana, but Muthanna’s idea which looked brilliant failed to materialize due to its poor execution. He turned right and tapped the ball on the reverse only to misdirect it. RCF had as many as fifteen circle penetrations in the second half indicating their dominance but the final pass was always misdirected or the forwards failed to position themselves properly. Once left half Amit Gowda made headway only to be caught in a fix. To hit or pass seemed to be his dilemma when a scoop over the Navy goalkeeper into the far corner would have done the trick.
Navy weathered the storm to make occasional sorties. One such counter saw Anup Kiro and Manoj Lokhande combined well but the final pass saw Ajay Kumar finding RCF keeper Ankit Gulia in his path from an acute angle. The experienced sailors finally got what they had bargained for. A goal to their account and then protect the lead. Pradeep Kullu intelligently sent a diagonal from the left for the cunning Manoj to deflect it into the top corner of goal with Ankit Gulia stranded. It was a good lesson for the young keeper but only for the future as the damage remained beyond repair. Navy played out the remaining time to deny RCF a look at their goal. Manoj Lokhande (Navy), Boon D’Souza, Laxman Rao (RCF) were shown the green card while Anup Kiro (Navy) got a yellow early in the first session.
Tomorrow’s matches
2.30 pm O.N.G.C Vs Central Railway
4.00 pm M.S.Police Vs Western Railway