Ratnam Sports Association showed great fighting qualities, plenty of determination and produced a solid second half as they recovered from a 0-3 deficit to overcome Franco Sports FC 4-3 in a tense and exciting First Division match of the MDFA Leagues 2017-2018, played at the St. Xavier’s ground, Parel.
Franco Sports started with a flourish and opened the scoring when Rohit Mandal hit the target in the very second minute. Later Franco Sports added two more goals through Tanmay Talgaonkar in the 15th minuite and three minutes later through Nayan Kajve to take a commanding 3-0 half time lead.
Despite trailing by quite a big margin, Ratnam SA showed no signs of giving up instead they regrouped, got their act together and made a strong reply in the second session to score four goals, the last one at the death to script a deserving win. Sunil Das led Ratnam’s fight back scoring their first goal in the second minute on resumption before they scoring two more quick goals in as many through Johnson M. in the 52nd and 53rd minute to cancel out Franco’s advantage.
Just when the match seemed to be heading for a close draw, Yogendra Lad from a last ditch effort netted the winner in the third minute of additional period to help Ratnam complete a satisfying victory and to collect all the three points.
Results – Div-I: Ratnam SA 4 (Johnson M. 2, Sunil Das, Yogendra Lad) beat Franco Sports FC 3 (Rohit Mandal, Tanmay Talgaonkar, Nayan Kajve) .