Indian Bank lose to Mahindra

Indian Bank's poor run continued as they went down 0-2 to Mahindra United in the eighth National Football League match at Chennai on Saturday.

This is the fifth successive home match that Indian Bank have lost. With this win, Mahindra added three more points to their tally.

For a change, Indian Bank fought tooth and nail, giving the visitors, comprising six international players and two foreign recruits, a hard time.

Mahindra went into the lead five minutes before the break with star-striker Venkatesh putting them in the lead. Promising youngster, Abhishek Yadav then showed lot of opportunism in increasing the lead in the dying seconds.

At least on all three occasions, Venkatesh (20th, 21st and 25th) showed his class with superb burst of speed but missed the target narrowly. His second try was thwarted by goal keeper Edward Felix and the third following a long volley by Steven Dias sailed slightly over the post.

In the 40th minute, Coven Lawrence worked his way to the left and his long volley was taken by Venkatesh who controlled the ball well before booting it in.

The Bankmen had a chance of scoring in the 58th but were thwarted by international Chaubey.

Following a Syed Sabir Pasha's cross, Fazlur Rahman took a powerful right footer but Chaubey displayed excellent anticipation in moving to his right to palm it away.

Then on, the Bankmen saw more of the ball but its defence could not stop Yadav, who latched on to a rebound of Steven Dias' shot, which came off Edward Felix.