IWL: Panjim Footballers draw with Rising Student Club; SSB Women keep hopes alive

Panjim Footballers 1 (Karishma Shirvoikar 19’) drew with Rising Student Club 1 (Satyabati Khadia 43’)

LUDHIANA: The resilient Panjim Footballers held Rising Student Club to a 1-1 draw in the Indian Women's League at the Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana on Monday.

Karishma Shirvoikar had scored for Panjim early on, but Satyabati Khadia equalised for RSC just before the half time break. Panjim goalkeeper Ashika Gadekar was adjudged Player of the Match for her heroics under the bar.

It was another game between two equally matched sides at the Guru Nanak Stadium. Rising Student Club were more dominant in the middle of the park and controlled long bouts of possession.

However, it was Panjim, against the run of play, who managed to take the lead, much in the same fashion as they had scored in their previous matches. An aerial through ball played in behind the defence was chansed by Karishma Shirvoikar, as she got to it just before the RSC keeper Puja Sahu and chipped it over her head into the goal.

Determined to get back on level terms, RSC launched a flurry of attacks. Eventually, striker Satyabati Khadia changed the Odisha side’s coach’s half-time talk as she emerged victorius out of a melee inside the Panjim box and nodded in a rebound from the keeper.

RSC came out with more determination to take the lead in the second half. However, Panjim had tweaked their tactics slightly, spreading the ball out to the flanks to stretch the RSC defence. This resulted in more frequent attacks by the Goan side.

Conversely, the side from Odisha started to take advantage of that to launch counter attacks of their own as they used their left winger Devneta Roy to hold the ball up and play the pacey forward Satyabati through. Devneta, however, did not last the full match, and was soon replaced by Jyosna Kishan.

Towards the end, RSC pushed substitute Ashrita Kangadi forward and used the legs of Khadia to destroy Panjim’s attacks in the middle of the park. While the Odisha side threw the proverbial kitchen sink in the dying moments, they failed to come up with the goal as the match ended in a draw.

Panjim captain Linda Colaco was shown a red card after the full-time whistle for indecent conduct.

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SSB Women celebrate a goal against FC Alakhpura in the IWL

FC Alakhpura 0 lost to SSB Women Football Club 1 (Dular Marandi 11’)

LUDHIANA: SSB Women Football team kept their chances for semifinal qualification alive after eking out a slender 1-0 victory over FC Alakhpura at the Guru Nanak Stadium.

SSB striker Dular Marandi scored the winner, but it was their defender and captain Susmita Marandi, who took the Player of the Match with her gutsy play to keep Alakhpura out.

It was a tight match between two equally-matched sides, with long spells of the game being played out in the middle of the park. However, SSB got the lead early on through forward Dular Marandi.

The Jharkhand-born striker chased what was literally a lost cause, as an aerial ball was played in behind the Alakhpura defence. Goalkeeper Neelam rushed out of her line, but Marandi reached the ball just nanoseconds before her and slipped it past the Alakhpura keeper to put SSB in the lead.

That game SSB some impetus as they looked to dominate play in the middle of the park, but Alakhpura also matched them with their brute strength, though the side from Haryana seemed to lack the final pass that would set up their strikers.

Alakhpura upped the ante in the second half, as they looked to put more bodies in the SSB box and launch long balls into the area. But the SSB defence dealt with these threats expertly.

Meanwhile, SSB looked to get on the ball and spread the balls to the wings in an effort to stretch the SSB defence and catch them on the counter.