Goa: Tiddim Road Athletic Union registered a comfortable 2-0 victory over All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) developmental side Indian Arrows at the Tilak Maidan in Goa on Sunday, January 12. Naocha Singh scored in the 44th minute to open the scoreline before Princewill Emeka doubled the visitor’s advantage in the 79th minute.
Arrows head-coach Shanmugam Venkatesh made a couple of changes to his previous line-up, with Aman Chetri replacing Harpreet Singh and Harmanpreet Singh taking Manvir Singh’s place up front, signalling a switch to 3-4-3. Dimitris Dimitriou made a solitary change, seemingly happy with his newfound cohesion in his side. Sandeep Singh was named to start at the back, at the expense of Deepak Devrani.
Fresh from their victory in the Imphal derby, it was TRAU who started pressing hard from the get-go, piling on the pressure and not allowing Indian Arrows to retain possession for long.
In the 5th minute of the game, Princewill Emeka received the ball on the edge of the box, and what didn’t seem like a goal-scoring pass initially, was converted into one by the skipper with a beautiful turn, that completely took his marker Bikash Yumnam out of the equation and with only the keeper to beat, TRAU were denied by a smart save from Lalbiakhlua Jongte in the Arrows goal.
TRAU kept pressing hard and forcing errors out of the hosts when they were in possession.
Emeka remained a constant threat, running circles around the Arrows defence and in the 12th minute, forced Bikash Yumnam into losing possession to him inside the box, which allowed him a crack on goal, but the number ten fired straight at Jongte.
TRAU skipper Princewill Emeka was adjudged to be the Hero of the Match. (Agencies)
