Sporting Clube-de-Goa came from behind to hold JCT Mills, Phagwara, to a 1-1 draw in a 10th ONGC National Football League match played in Margao on Sunday.
JCT, who were on the backfoot for most of the match, took the lead against the run of play in the 11th minute through Johnson.
Sporting's Edeh Chidi, who was adjudged the man of the match, equalised for the Goan side in the 61st minute.
The result leaves both teams with two points as they have drawn their two matches.
Sporting did most of the attacking but could not break through in the first-half as the strong JCT defenders remained composed to thwart most of their moves.
Even when the JCT defence was caught napping, keeper Kalyan Chubey came off with good saves to deny Nicolau Borges, Rajesh Meetei and Chidi of near certain goals.
JCT mainly relied on counter-attacks to break the rival defence.
The visitors went ahead when Renedy Singh initiated a move from the middle and relayed the ball to Praveen Kumar inside the box.
Praveen squared the ball to the better-placed Johnson who moved away from his marker and essayed a firm left-footer to find the net.
JCT lost their reliable defender Daljit Singh in the middle of the first half. He got injured clashing with a teammate while going for an aerial ball and was replaced by Baldeep Singh.
Sporting dictated terms in the second-half with Bebiano leading the attack along with Adebayo Adewusi, Niclau Borges and Joseph Pereira. They constantly fed Chidi and Dudu upfront with series of raids putting the JCT defence under tremendous pressure.
Chidi, after missing a couple of scoring chances, equalised when he powered a shot home from the top of the box beating a diving Chubey to his right.
The hosts continued to pound the rival penalty area and could have taken all three points but Dudu, after getting the better of two rival defenders, missed the target by a whisker.
© 2024 Rediff.com -