New Delhi: Nigerian striker Ranty Martins’ timely equaliser in the 87th minute helped Prayag earn a point against ONGC as the third round I-League encounter between the teams ended at 1-1 draw.
Prayag now have seven points from three matches while ONGC, who had lost their first two games, opened their account.
ONGC got their lead in the 36th minute when Nigerian forward Eric Brown’s curling left-footed free-kick beat an outstretched Subrata Paul’s hands to enter the net.
It was a match that the Kolkata outfit started as overwhelming favourites but by the time referee Tejas Nagvenkar blew the long whistle, Sanjay Sen’s boys were lucky to have escaped with a draw.
ONGC, coached by Subrata Bhattacharya (Jr), should have won the match had their Japanese recruit Yusa Katsumi been lucky on a couple of occasions.
Gourmangi Singh had a horrible day at the office as Katsumi made a mockery of him repeatedly dribbling past him as well snatching balls.
There was a fair amount of interest about Costa Rican World Cupper Carlos Hernandez but he turned out to be an utter disappointment.
He looked pedestrian during his hour-long stay on the pitch. His class is unquestionable if one goes by a few touches, but he is yet to attain full fitness and needs to immediately work on shedding a few kilos.
He was rightly taken off at the stroke of an hour as coach Sen replaced him with New Zealander Kayne Vincent who certainly added a bit of mobility upfront.
Carlos was very angry with Sen’s decision as he didn’t sit in the reserve bench and just banged the door on his way to the dressing room. (PTI)