Cuttack: The All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) development side Indian Arrows registered their first win of the Hero I-League, riding on an 11th minute Asish Rai strike to overcome Shillong Lajong FC here Monday.
The side from Meghalaya looked clearly out of depth in the heat and humidity of Odisha’s second largest city against a well-travelled Arrows unit and capitulated to a second successive defeat from three games, despite impressive performances in their first two outings back home.
The Arrows did well to come back after a 1-4 loss to Chennai in their opening game. Arrows coach Floyd Pinto made a couple of changes to the XI which started the first game against Chennai. Aimol began at right back in place of Jitendra Singh and Boris Singh replaced Sanjiv Stalin, who had a mediocre outing against Chennai, on the right side of midfield.
Alison Kharsyntiew, the Shillong head, opted for an unchanged starting line-up, playing a regular 4-4-2 with Mahesh Naorem Singh and captain Samuel Lalmuanpuia upfront.
Shillong were quicker off the blocks though with Lalmuanpuia releasing Buam inside the box as early as the second minute but the midfielder failed to chest the ball down properly in front of him to make the desired impact.
Then in the 11th minute, off an Arrows attacking foray, the loose ball meandered away from the Shillong goal with Novin Gurung at right back in pursuit. Novin’s touch just outside the box was intercepted by an onrushing Asish Rai who broke free and unleashed a crisp right-footed curler to give the Arrows the lead for the second game running.
The Arrows then decided to sit back and hold on to the lead and play on the counter, a strategy which they have been brought up on quite well.