Champions Madras Engineer Group (MEG) huffed and puffed to a unimpressive 1-0 victory against a lowly Oriental side in the Super Division football league at the Bangalore Football stadium here on Friday.
The champions hardly lived upto their reputation though striker Nigilraj saved the day with a slicing header in the 31st minute. Modest shooting did MEG in and they even missed a penalty spot-kick when Jitin Metei’s effort was saved by Oriental custodian Elavarasan.
Despite securing a big chunk of possession, MEG ran out of ideas inside the rival box and also struggled with passing which was totally in contrast to their show against BEML in the abandoned tie the other day. At the other end, Oriental too had their chances, mainly in the second-half. But their players took turns in squandering them while going for aimless long rangers.
However, Rama Rao almost got Oriental the lead in the 27th minute, but the lanky customer was denied by a valiant charge from MEG goalkeeper Malay Paul.
Amidst desperation, MEG got much-needed lease of life through the Nigilraj goal after fellow forward Lokeshwar Singh fed him well from the right flank.
Just eight minutes after that, MEG brought in Dipan Thapa for an off-colour Gurumurthy but the script more-or-less remained intact.
The second half too was equally unconvincing for the Sappers and Oriental gave them scares through rare counter-attacks. Prakash messed up one such good opportunity in the 64th minute and later, Shekar did the same.
MEG’s frustration mounted in the 80th minute when a Metei spot-kick, awarded as Oriental defender Mal handled the ball inside the box, was blocked by Elavarasan. The goalkeeper again was in the thick of action five minutes later with a neat collection after a one-to-one with substitute Gabriel.
MEG nevertheless have retained the top spot in the table with 23 points from nine outings, ahead of HASC’s 20 from eight matches.
Other result: ‘A’ Division: BUFC: 1 (Ramesh 54th) drew SWRI: 1 (Srikanth 87th).
Saturday’s matches: ‘A’ Division: Government Press vs Sri Gajanana, 1.45 pm; Super Division: DYSS vs SAI, 3.45 pm.
