Pune: Prolific scorer Kingsley Harrison opened the scoring for Amanora Deccan XI Football Club midway through the first half as the city-based team built on it to score an upset 2-0 win against Prayag United Sports Club, Kolkata, in the Group A league match of the 7th Abhijit Kadam Memorial Football Cup here on Tuesday.
Prayag United, the I-League top rung team, is essentially here with their junior squad and in the given conditions the boys in purple did well to contain Deccan XI, the winners of the Abhijit Kadam Memorial Football Shield.
The win helped the local side finish their Group-A engagements with an all-win record (6 points) and qualify for the semifinals where they take on the runners-up of Group-B.
Taking chances from the start, Deccan forwards put pressure on Prayag as Gajanan Rajurwad and Thangginmang Khonesai made relentless attacks from the either wings. Rajurwad held fort in the left, while Khomesai was in right and feeding Harrison with defence-splitting passes.
In the 33rd minute, Deccan XI earned a free-kick in the left corner, about 10 yards from the goal-line. Harrison was up to the task while taking the ensuing free-kick as he traversed the wall and sent a curving shot right into the post to put his team 1-0 ahead.
For Prayag, Gogannath Oraw, Arjun Chatterje and Anjan Dey tried their best to penetrate into the Deccan forte, but the local team defenders did their job well thwarting the surge from the Kolkatans.
On changing the ends, Deccan began on a confident note with mid-fielder Harrison moving up to push the strikers further up. In the 51st minute, Harrison sent a clear pass to Gajanan Rajurwad, who cat past two defenders before smashing in the second goal for the Pune team.
Seven minutes later, the man-of-the-match Rajurwad again was at the centre of action when he tried a long shot from about 40 yards that flew past close to the right pole. Prayag goalkeeper Raju Chakraborty nonetheless stretched himself and flew high in the air, but the ball was further wide of him.
Deccan dominated the second half too, keeping the ball in Prayag’s side for much of the time. Khonesai, who was working hard on the right finally got a chance to put the ball into the net. In the 74th minute, he received a clearance from the centre and ran with the ball before shooting it right into Prayag goalkeeper’s hands.
The young Prayag squad was listless, but nonetheless could take heart that they did give Amanora Deccan XI a few moments of scare. In the 81st minute, Sabir Ahamad got a golden opportunity, but his head from in front of the goalkeeper was punched out leaving him in despair. Harrison went for one last run in the dying minutes, but his shot flew wide off the left post.
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