BANGALORE, APRIL 24: A Babatunde hat trick guided Shillong outfit Rangdajied United FC to a comfortable 3-1 win over bottom-placed Kolkata team Southern Samity in their ninth match of the 2nd Division I-League at the Bangalore Football Stadium here on Wednesday, taking them a step closer to qualifying for the prestigious I-League next season.
The Rangdajied win, however, severely dented their city rival Langsning’s chances of qualifying for the country’s top league despite winning their match against Mumbai Tigers by an identical margin earlier in the day. With their win, Rangdajied have collected 16 points from nine outings while Langsning have 12 points in their kitty in equal number of matches.
Rangdajied opened their account in the 16th minute of the game when Babatunde headed home a cross from the left flank by skipper Restom Khriam. In the 26th minute, Samity’s S. Heman Singh equalized for his team, making the game very interesting.
In the 40th minute, Thomas Saikhom crossed the ball which beat Rangdajied’s Korean recruit Shin Hojun, but the Nigerian striker Babatunde following the ball headed home for a 2-1 lead.
After the lemon break, the action was mostly restricted to the mid-field with very little goal-mouth action. However, in the 83 minute of the game, referee Anthony Elvis of Goa awarded a spot kick in favour of the Shillong side after he caught Imran Khan bringing down Shin, who was immediately subsituted by Loveday Okechukwu. Babatandue made no mistake with his penalty kick to score his hat trick and give his team a 3-1 lead.
The Kolkata side was reduced to ten men in the fag end of the match after referee gave the marching order to Shyam Mondal for punching E Abocha Singh.
Rangdajied will play their next match against table toppers Mohammedan Sporting Club on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, Langsning FC came from behind to defeat the much hyped Tigers.
It was Langsning who dominated the game from the start, but their forwards failed to convert any of the chances that came their way. The closest the Shillong club came to scoring was in the 21st minute when skipper Daniel Bidemi had only the rival custodian Arup Debnath to beat, but he delay-dallied for far too long and by the time he took the shot, a defender came in between and cleared the ball.
In the 31st minute, Mumbai opened the score sheet when an unmarked Durga Boro tapped home skipper Paresh Shialkar’s cross ball.
After the changeover, Bidemi equalized in the 68th minute when he converted an Ailad Kynta cross.Langsning took the lead in the 73rd minute of the game through an own goal by Mumbai left back Nawab Zeeshan Rahaman. Rahaman tried to clear a measured shot by Langsning’s PH Boy Singh, only to see the ball roll into his own goal.
Langsning completed their tally in the 85th minute of the game when Marlangki Suting shot home a Joel Sunday cross. (By Suraj Joshi)
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