GUWAHATI, Sept 18 - The 64th Bharat Ratna Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Trophy Football Tournament got off to a disappointing start at the Nehru Stadium here today with a drawn match between former champions Oil India Football Club, Duliajan and Shillong Lajong Football Club.
Both the teams netted one goal each.
F Wary put Oil India FC ahead in the 14th minute while substitute Issac Vanlalsawma drew parity in the 78th minute.
The match witnessed a crowd of around 5,000 at the stands which was far below the expectations.
The Shillong team put up a spirited show in the second session and with some perfect counter moves they forced the Oil players to fall back. In the 78th minute, Noun Gurung made a beautiful move down the right flank and set the ball for Issac who made absolutely no mistake in beating Oil custodian Nihal Das.
However, in the 80th minute Jayanta Basumatary failed to beat the opponent custodian in an one-on-one situation.
Earlier, the match got off to a slow start as both Oil India FC and Shillong Lajong FC were quite cautious and hardly went all out at the initial stages. However, the experienced Oil boys tried to make inroads into the Lajong territory using both the flanks.
Jayanta Basumatary, Mintu Boro and F Wary were on their toes and were initially giving a tough time to their opponents after 10 minutes of kick off.
The Shillong outfit, mostly comprising of young players, had to face some real threat from Jayanta and Mintu. But it was Wary who drew first blood in the 14th minute with a measured shot from the left flank. It was however a feeble right footer from Wary which beat Shillong Lajong custodian Phurba Tempa Lachenpa at his left corner.
Shillong striker Milan Basumatary missed the target narrowly in the 21st minute. Oil defenders Raju Konwar, Tridip Hazarika and Jyotish Basumatary had a busy time in the later part of the first session.
Today�s match: 3 Star Nepal vs Barak Flamingo, Nagaland.
