MOVE ASIDE...Rajesh Thorat (blue jersey) of Central Bank seems to saying this even as he shoots past Holiday Inn's Mario Caldera, who takes evasive action. Sagar Amin (No 4) watches helplessly. The match ended in a goalless draw.

MUMBAI, August 12: Central Bank (CBI) kept their slate clean in the Gulf Oil Senior Division League when they drew goalless with Holiday Inn in the first clash of the second leg at the Cooperage today.

CBI, who had won four and drawn four matches in the first leg, have 17 points from nine matches now. Holiday Inn, who had 12 points from three wins and three draws, added one today to take their tally to 13.

With the ground conditions proving difficult to play skillful soccer with the odd bounce, it would have taken a rare streak of brilliance or a freak goal to break the deadlock. Neither of this happened and the game petered out into a boring tussle for the ball.

Neither team could stamp their authority on the match what with the ground drying out and presenting an uneven surface to play on. Though CBI kept pushing forward, they could test the classy Malay Sarkar, manning the Holiday Inn goal, only once. And Sarkar stood out with a good save. Osborn D'Souza from the left passed to Harendra Singh Mal in the area and the latter swung a left-foot shot which Sarkar dived to his right and gather in his safe possession.

Harendra Mal was later sent off for trying to snatch the yellow card from referee K Sengupta. Mal questioned the referee's authority on atleast two occasions and the second time he did, Sengupta flashed the yellow card.

The only other tense moment for Sarkar came when Girish Nair struck a 40-yard shot in the first half and the ball came descended threateningly but Sarkar was well in position. The ball, however, went over the bar.

If any goal would have fell it was CBI's. With the defence pushing forward, there were scope of counter attacks from the Holiday Inn forwards. And in the 50th minute, Lance Fonseca nearly scored after breaking free on a forward pass, beat left-stopper Girish Nair on speed and volleyed with his left-foot but the ball went over.

Earlier, in the Gulf Oil Division League match, BPT defeated Custom Boys 1-0 with Nasir Ahmed scoring the winning goal.

Holy Family win

Holy Family scraped past Tata Electric 1-0 in the Harwood League encounter of the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) being played at the St.Xavier's ground, Parel.

The solitary goal of the match came seven minutes into the second half through striker Edgar Perreira who netted the ball with a right-foot shot inches away from the diving Tata goalkeeper. The goalkeeper was actually standing in the line of fire but the shot deflected after hitting one of the defenders' who was trying to block Perreira.

Though Holy Family were winners today, their performance was nowhere near the one they displayed in their debut league encounter this year when they thrashed an equally strong Saki Village Boys.

The line of action for Tata's was more of defending their post rather than attacking the opponents and they did it well, but for the unfortunate goal. The match did have a couple of close calls for the Tata team which they fought through. Notable among them was the corner taken by Holy Family mid-fielder Chetan Solanki. The ball went first to striker Edgar Perreira whose shot, however, rebounded from the bar only to go to Vasant Karkera.

This too, however, was warded of with a fine header by BV Prasad. The ball was then struck by Holy Family striker Francis D'Costa and this time goalkeeper Nilesh Chavan tapped the ball out.

After today's match Holy Family have six points from three league matches while Tata Electric have seven points from five matches.

Earlier, MLWB (NM Joshi Marg) defeated Young Boys (Siddharth) 1-0 after both teams were tied at 0-0 at half time. Donovan D'Souza scored in this Div III league match of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Trophy at the same venue.

Sunny Mathias and Ashton D'Souza netted a goal each to help Bombay Republican subdue Toofan Sports Club 2-1 in a Div II league match. Poonam Makwana decreased the margin for Toofan.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.