Goalkeeper K Naresh produced a string of saves to help Accountants General's Office Recreation Club (AGORC) eke out a 1-0 win over Rail Wheel Factory (RWF) after being reduced to 10 men in the BDFA Super Division League at the Bangalore Football Stadium here on Saturday.
AGORC’s defender Jaikumar Y was given his marching orders on the hour for abusing referee Vijaya Kumar after being showed a yellow card.
Midfielder Pradeep Kumar netted the only goal in the 34th minute to give AGORC the edge in a game which saw a total of eight yellow cards and a red.
AGORC move up to sixth in the table with four points from three games while RWF, with two points from five games, are in seventh spot.
The game started in a drab manner with both teams missing early opportunities to score. But AGORC broke the deadlock when Muralidharan floated a fine free-kick into the box from midfield that RWF ’keeper Krishna failed to clear. The ball then fell nicely for Pradeep, who smashed it into the net.
RWF could have equalised a minute later when midfielder Jayawardhan slid in a pass for Nandha Kumar inside the opponents box but he slammed his effort wide off the target.
Goalkeeper Naresh then kept them in the contest in the second period as he produced a number of saves to deny RWF the equaliser.
Naresh produced another good save in the 75th minute when the ball broke to Sanjay, whose attempt from edge of the ball looked destined for the top corner only for the AGORC ’keeper to tip the ball over the bar.
Five minutes later, Naresh again found himself in the thick of things when he palmed away a pin-point header from Prakash.
SAI score big win
Earlier in the ‘A’ Division, Sports Authority of India (SAI) thumped Bangalore Independents 4-0.
Dipamazumdar scored a brace (6th, 55th) while KC Singh (4th) and Sudarshan (76th) netted a goal each for the winners.