Chirag Kerala came back from behind to score a victory over Air India FC in the round 20 of the I-League 2011-12, earning precious three points as they try to escape the relegation battle. The win took Chirag United to three points behind Mumbai FC who are at eleventh spot before the league takes a 40 day break.
Air India who had 27 points from 19 matches coming into this game, didn’t take much tie to open the scoring. Ezeh Henry found Sandesh Gadkari upfront and they combined together with Gadkari slotting the ball into the back of the net, five minutes into the game.
Soon after going down, the Kerala side tried hard to come back into the game. Captain Anil Kumar found his header rattle the crossbar minutes after the Air India goal. Air India also had their chance to score more as Sharath K was forced into an exceptional save by Takayuki Omi.
Chirag again had chances through Anil Kumar and Vineeth CK, but Pawan Kumar on goal did enough to hold onto the leadm until the referee blowed for a penalty in favour of the away side in the 31st minute. The foul was conceded by Bijay Basfore for bringing down Vineeth inside the penalty box. Defender Charles Dzisah who stepped up to take the spot kick did not miss and Chirag were back level.
Chirag had two more penalty shouts turned down by the referee before the halftime whistle, but the referee waved them away. Sharath was brilliant on goal for Chirag in the second half too, despite the keeper coming under a lot of criticism for his poor performance in the season.
Chirag took the lead in the 65th minute, thanks to a volley from Sukhwinder Singh resulting from a corner. Sukhwinder who had shown glimpses of form in the last match against Sporting Clube de Goa was not to miss the chance to give his team a much needed lead here.
David Sunday struck the final nail to Air India’s coffin in the 87th minute as he scored from a quick counter by Chirag United Kerala. The win takes Chirag to 14 points from 19 games and they are no just three points behind Mumbai FC who occupy the eleventh spot in the league table.
They will now play Shillong Lajong FC in the round 21 on March 24, 2012 in an home encounter at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium, Kochi.
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Sunday 12 February 2012. The database copy of this article was lost; it was recovered in 2026 from the Internet Archive's saved copy of the live page.
Comments · 1
At last chirag won again. I am happy. I am still wondering why this team is in relegation zone. And I was sad to see less than 500 people turning up in Kochi for chirag vs sc de goa match. Hopefylly chirag will stay in the league and nexy year we will produce some superstars.