Durand Cup: Bodoland FC thrash FC1 3-0 to revive Group F campaign
Bodoland FC defeated FC1 3-0 in a Group F match of the 135th IndianOil Durand Cup to revive their campaign. Robinson Rendon, Rituraj Mohan and Aron Thapa scored as Bodoland bounced back from their opening defeat to move level on three points.
Hyderabad: Bodoland FC bounced back from its opening match defeat to NorthEast United with a commanding 3-0 win over FC1 in a Group F fixture of the 135th IndianOil Durand Cup played at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Thursday.
Robinson Rendon put Bodoland ahead just past the hour, heading home from Narzary’s cross after twice missing similar chances earlier in the evening. Substitutes Rituraj Mohan and Aron Thapa then turned a single-goal lead into a rout inside four second-half minutes, both scoring within a quarter of an hour of being introduced — timing that owed at least as much to head coach Vikash Panthi’s reading of the game as it did to the finishers themselves.
The result leaves Group F intriguingly poised. Bodoland move to three points from two matches, still working off a negative goal difference after that opening humbling but very much back in contention on the back of a result that will have done wonders for confidence.
FC1, despite Monday’s defeat, remain level on three points from two games courtesy of their opening victory, and sit second in the table, above Bodoland on goal difference alone. NorthEast United top the group unbeaten, with Karbi Anglong Morning Star FC yet to open their account.
The breakthrough, when it came in the 57th minute, had an air of inevitability about it. Narzary skinned his marker down the left and delivered a measured cross for Robinson, whose header this time found the corner rather than the goalkeeper’s gloves.
By the 78th minute, any lingering FC1 hope had been extinguished twice over. Rituraj, on for barely half an hour, pounced on a loose ball after Narzary’s free kick struck the wall, nutmegging Ashraf for his first involvement to count. Four minutes later Thapa added gloss neither side needed, riding a challenge to surge into the box and finish low with real composure, the sort of goal that closes a chapter rather than opens one.
The result: Bodoland FC 3 (Robinson Rendon 57’, Rituraj Mohan 78’, Aron Thapa 82’) bt FCI 0.
