Taking full advantage of Viva Kerala's poor defence, Mahindra United won 2-0 in the 13th round of the ONGC I-League football tie in Kozhikode on Thursday.
Andrews Pomeyie Mensah (47th minute) and Mohammed Rafi (73rd) scored for the visitors.
The match started with both the teams playing more in the midfield and the first half was quiet as neither of them looked capable of scoring goals.
However, the second half was lively with Mahindra coming out of the blocks with renewed vigour and establishing their supremacy over a hapless Viva.
Capitalising on the home team's defence lapse, Mahindra took the lead when man-of-the-match Mensah shot from a close range collecting a combined pass from Sukhwinder Singh and Pierre Djidjia Douhou even as Viva's custodian Nelson fell down.
Viva will only have themselves to blame for failing to find the target and bring in the equaliser within a minute.
Mahindra winger Steven Dias was the architect of the second goal, guiding a brilliant pass from the right wing which Rafi blasted into the net.
With this win, Mahindra have moved to the fourth spot with 20 points, pushing behind Mohun Bagan, who also enjoy identical points.
While both Mahindra and Bagan have similar goal average, the former have suffered less number of defeats (three) compared to Bagan (four).
Trailing in the eighth place in the 10-team League with 12 points, Viva continue to remain in the relegation zone along with Salgaocar and East Bengal.
Viva Kerala will play Churchill Brothers in their next home match in Kozhikode on February 4.
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