St Mary's rally to eke out 1-1 draw vs St Joseph's

Twain Fernandes

St Mary's High School SSC (Mazgaon) battled hard against St Joseph's High School (Wadala) to draw 1-1 in Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) boys' U-16 Div I inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan on Saturday.

St Joseph's Twain Fernandes (left) and St Mary's Numaan Virani vie for the ball during the MSSA inter-school Div 1 football tournament at Azad Maidan on Saturday. Pic/Shadab Khan

St Joseph started the game on the front foot, and had most of the possession. Captain Twain Fernandes and Ruben Kalpund impressed for the Wadala outfit as their side pegged St Mary's in their own half. In the 26th minute, Abhishek Jadhav got fouled near the edge of the 30-yard box after receiving a pass from Ruben. David Lupeng scored from the resultant freekick to hand St Joseph the lead.

Missed chance
St Mary's, which looked down and out through the second half, almost equallised when captain Omar Shah received the ball in front of an open goal, only to hit it wide.

The miss, however, served as motivation for the team from Mazgaon, and from that point, St Mary dominated the game. In the 50th minute, they got their reward when Bilal Makhnojia managed to head the ball past St Joseph's 'keeper from a corner.

Amaan Khan, who was the spark in St Mary's fightback, praised the whole team.

The midfielder, who suffers from asthma, had difficulty breathing during the match. "I couldn't breath properly during the game. I had to come off and then my coach Deepak Irmali told me to calm down, which helped," Amaan said.

St Mary's coach was happy with what he saw despite his side having difficulties in gelling. "We had two players who joined us yesterday. We were having difficulties in the first half. But we managed to play well in the second half, which is a positive sign."