U-16 Youth League
SHILLONG: A dogged Royal Wahingdoh FC rallied twice to hold Guwahati Town FC 3-3 in a U-16 Youth League at the Mawlai artificial turf ground here on Saturday afternoon.
While Manash Sonowal put the visitors in front with a 47th minute strike, Remark Kharmalki cancelled it out in the 66th minute. Prinash Basumatary (68’) and Anand Bhattarai (82’) threatened to drive the Royals out of the contest but Phrangki Buam scored a brace (85’ and 90+4’) to ensure that RWFC take a point from the crucial tie.
The Royals started on an aggressive note dominating possession from the word go. The first chance of the match went begging for the hosts when a scorcher of a shot from Buam missed the nets by a whisker on the left.
The hosts thereafter continued to exert pressure on the Guwahati side but failed to cash in on the chances as the first ended with none of the sides being able to score.
The second half started with a shocker for RWFC as a blunder at the back by custodian Kevinson Bareh handed GTFC the lead. Luck seemed to be favouring the visitors for a while as a Remark Kharmalki shot soon after hit the crossbar.
But the efforts paid off finally 8 minutes after the hour mark with Remark placing one brilliantly into the nets.
Barely had the celebrations died down that GTFC struck again two minutes later to make it 2-1. Yet again goalie Kevinson and A Rakesh Singh were found wanting at the back. Kevinson was soon replaced by Pyrshang Dhar. But things got worse when GTFC scored their third in the 82nd minute sending shockwaves in the RWFC camp.
The match was, however, far from over. The Royals soon struck back three minutes later with Buam scoring his first goal of the tie. Still facing a one-goal deficit with barely four minutes to go, RWFC showed extreme urgency on the pitch. The entire RWFC camp and the supporters at Madan Heh erupted in joy when Buam scored his brace in the last minute of stoppage time to make it 3-3.