Jamshedpur, July 29 (IANS) Sanan Mohammed’s second-half strike ensured Jamshedpur FC secured a 1-0 victory over Indian Army FT for their consecutive victory in Group C of the 134th Durand Cup, which was played here at the JRD Tata Sports Complex.

With this win, Jamshedpur FC have six points from two matches and are on top of the group, closer to a place in the knockout stages.

Jamshedpur FC head coach Khalid Jamil made two changes to his starting line-up bringing in Karthik Choudhary and Sourav Das in place of Sarthak Goloui and Lalhriatpuia Chawngthu while Indian Army head coach Manish Wahi named an experienced starting eleven in a 4-3-3 formation with Rahul Ramakrishnan, LitonShil, Shubham Rana and Samir Murmu, who debuted for Jamshedpur FC in the ISL last season, leading the attack.

Indian Army dominated the first half of the game maintaining possession and creating the better chances. The Armymen could have taken a two-goal lead inside the first 15 minutes but Samir Murmu’s effort from a tight angle whisked past the far post and minutes later, Samananda Singh glanced a header wide from a corner kick. Jamshedpur FC were finding it difficult to match up with the physicality of the Army side as they dominated the midfield with Lethaolen Khongsai and P. Christopher Kamei dictating the pace of the attacks. Samir came close once again to score as the striker pounced on a weak-headed pass from Praful Kumar to the goalkeeper but his effort was blocked by the keeper Amrit Gope.

On the other end, the Red Miners were using the long ball strategy and the usage of long throw-ins to break down the Indian Army defence, without much success. Amrit Gope also made a fingertip save to deny Army captain B. Sunil’s effort in added time of the first half to keep the scores level at the lemon break.

Khalid Jamil made two changes at the start of the second half, bringing in V P Suhair and Nikhil Barla in place of Vincy Barretto and Pronay Halder to inject some energy going forward. The home side took the lead in the 52nd minute, finishing a move which started from another long throw. Karthik Choudhary headed the ball back into the danger area and Sanan Mohammed chested the ball down and finished expertly past the diving Sayad Bin Abdul Kadir in goal.

Jamshedpur had better control in the game after taking the lead, even though the Indian Army had the major share of possession and attempts on goal but there were very few shots on target that troubled the goalkeeper. The closest they came to scoring was when Liton Shil hit the crossbar with a thumping long ranger in the closing stages of the second half.

There was more drama towards the end of the match as Indian Army goalkeeper Sayad Bin Abdul Kadir was given the marching orders for a challenge on Jayesh Rane outside the penalty box, after the midfielder beat the off-side trap and ran through free towards goal. Defender Samananda Singh took the goalkeeping duties for the last minutes of injury time as the Indian Army were pushing for an equaliser. V P Suhair also hit the crossbar in the last moments of the game as Jamshedpur FC negotiated the last barrage of attacks to earn the hard-fought three points.

–IANS

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