Chirag United Kerala plunged into their second straight home defeat to Dempo SC at the University Stadium, Trivandrum, in the fifth round, but this time giving a good fight to the league toppers.
Dempo SC drew first blood on a sunny afternoon at the university stadium through Ranty Martins on 15th minute. Climax Lawrance played his part with a delicious cross from the left wing and the striker rose above the Chirag defence to head the ball in. Chirag backline looked vulnerable as Dempo SC settled the quickest and started to pass the ball arround with confidence. Dempo doubled its lead on the stroke of half time as Ranty Martins drove at the heart of Chirag defence. Although the resultant shot looked to be a tame one, it took a deflection and ended in the back of the net.
The Goan defence would be breached for the first time this season as Chirag pulled one back in the second half through Vineeth CK on the hour mark. The goal came as a result of misjudgement on the part of Dempo keeper Subhashish Roy Chowdhury as he came to collect a long expectant ball from Michael Matricciani and the pass evaded him and Vineeth CK gratefully tapped the ball in.
After that, Chirag pressed hard for an equaliser but the Dempo defence stood firm. Eventually it was Dempo who threatened to score again and Ranty Martins squadenered atleast two more oppurtunities to put his side to safety.
After the early goal, Chirag was dealt with two more blows as they were forced to make two first half substitution. Gurjinder Singh was taken off on 16th minute and Arindam Ghosh was taken to the hospital for a scan as he collided with his own teammate while trying to clear a free kick. This meant that the reserve custodian Sharath was called into action on 21st minute. He gave a good account of himself as he pulled off some good saves and made a crucial last ditch challenge on Ranty Martins on a one on one situation
Armando Colaco would be happy with his team's performance as they marched on with their 100 percent record in this season's I-League. Man of the Match Koko Sakibo put in an impressive performance as he linked up with Ranty martins and terrorized the Chirag defence constantly. Mahesh Gawli and Sameer Naik was a rock at the back as they put all their experience to negate Chirag's attacking threat. The later played a crucial role in stopping Vineeth when the Chirag strikers were through on goal, with a fantastic last ditch tackle. Dempo looked the technically superior side as they kept the ball with minimum fuss and waited for an inexperienced Chirag defence to make a mistake.
For Chirag, Ajayan was the best player on the park by a mile .The Chirag captain ran the show from midfield and started many of Chirag's counter attacks. He also gave good cover to his defence and his positional sense was superb. He looked comfortable on the ball and his long range attempt during the first half drew big applause from the crowd.
Michael Matricciani failed to impress again after he missed two golden chance to score,the second of which was a guilt edged opportunity as a cross from Noushad put the ball on plate for Matricciani to tap in, but the Australian poked it wide. The crowd got on his back as the match progressed and his performance deteriorated further. The midfield gave the ball away far too cheaply and were made to pay by the Goan side.
There was another encouraging turn out and majority would have been disappointed with performance of Chirag. They lacked quality going forward and the absence of an out and out striker was evident. The fans can be encouraged by the news that Anil Kumar and James Singh are already on their way to joining the team and club sources have confirmed that they have almost signed up an ex-Locomotiv Moscow player who hails from Cameroon. If Packeer Ali can sort out his attacking options then there is a cause for optimism.
Rohan Shah writes for FootballKerala.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Friday 11 November 2011, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.