Mandya District Football Association and Belgaum District Football Association played out a goalless draw in a Group B encounter of the inter-district football tournament at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Thursday.
The result took Belgaum’s tally to four points from two matches, while Mandya earned their first point from two games. They had lost to Dharwad in their opening clash.
In another Group B match, Dakshina Kannada handed Kodagu their second defeat, posting a 4-2 verdict. Arun (33rd minute), Jalal (38th), Raghavendra (39th) and Imran (75th) netted for the winners, while Srinivasa (27th) and Rehamath (67th) scored for Kodagu.
The highlight of the Mandya-Belgaum tie was the creditable display of defending by Mandya’s Rakesh, Manohar, Shivashankar and Jinesh Kumar.
They frustrated the Belgaum attackline of Robert Francis, Allahbaksh Bepari and Mangesh B time and again.
The return of Rakesh, who had missed the first match due to exams, seemed to have strengthened the Mandya defence that conceded three second-half goals in the previous game. Rakesh excelled, sticking to the basics and producing splendid tackles.
On the other hand, Belgaum had plenty of problems in their defence and goalkeeper Richie Sanchez was always under pressure. The Belgaum custodian had a memorable outing with two brilliant saves in the second half. The first came when he charged out to foil a Muralidhar attempt. Later, M V Venugopal’s solo run and his subsequent shot met the same fate. The Mandya attack centred around skipper Venugopal, who could not muster support from his mates.
The frustration in the Belgaum ranks was apparent in the second session when two of their players received yellow cards from the referee Vijayakumar. Mangesh B was booked for showing dissent at an off-side call in the 60th minute, while Nazreth Fernandez was pulled up for rough play.