A first half strike by Danish Farooq was enough for the Snow Leopards to seal an important victory at home against relegation-threatened NEROCA…
Danish Farooq’s 42rnd minute strike helped Real Kashmir FC beat NEROCA FC 1-0 in an I-League 2019-20 clash on Wednesday at the TRC Turf Ground, Srinagar.
The Snow Leopards climbed up to the third position on the league table with today’s win. They now have 22 points from 14 matches. NEROCA, on the other, remained on the 10th position with 15 points from 15 matches.
Gift Raikhan made three changes in the NEROCA lineup. Ronald Singh, Zodingliana Ralte and Chanso Horam replaced Dhananjoy Singh, Jiteshwor Singh and Subhash Singh.
Editors’ Picks
- How Guardiola took control as Man City’s season threatened to fall apart
- Lingard, Pereira, Jones & the Man Utd reserves who could leave this summer
- No time for panic – Liverpool’s form has dipped but Klopp is right to trust his players
- Classy Ceballos stepping out of the shadows at Arsenal
David Robertson, on the other hand, made just one change in the Real Kashmir starting 11. Chesterpaul Lyngdoh replaced Ritwik Kumar Das on the right flank.
The match got off to a scrappy start as both teams played wayward football right from the beginning. There was a bit of drama in the 11th minute of the match when Ousamane Diawara was sent off after he accidentally kicked his own teammate Zodingliana on the chest.
After vehement protests from the NEROCA players, the referee consulted with his assistants and late decided to overturn his decision and cautioned him by showing a yellow card.
Danish Farooq then broke the deadlock in 42nd minute when he found the back of the net with a clinical header of Chesterpaul Lyngdoh’s cross.
In the injury time, the hosts came close to double their lead twice. First Kallum Higginbotham won a loose ball from Diawara and entered the box before trying to place the ball into the net through the far post but failed to keep his shot on target.
Then just seconds before the half time whistle, Farooq received a long ball from Farhan Ganie and tried to lob the ball over Bishorjit Singh from the edge of the box but the NEROCA goalkeeper did well to stop the ball from going in.
Real Kashmir continued to dominate proceedings in the second half and got quite a few chances to score an insurance goal but could not find the back of the net. The visitors, on the other hand, lacked the urgency even though they were a goal down.
