Mumbai: Former champions Air India faced quite a strong challenge from a spirited and gutsy Central Bank of India before clinching a narrow 1-0 win in an Elite (Corporate) Division match of the Mumbai Football Association (MFA) League 2022-2023 and played at the Neville D’Souza ground, Bandra on Friday evening.
The Central Bank outfit played with plenty of determination and showed excellent teamwork to put the Air India citadel under tremendous pressure, but they were unable to convert the chances that came their way and that proved their undoing.
Air India after soaking in a lot of pressure and surviving Central Bank’s scare managed to turn things around by scoring the all-important winner through Arfat Ansari’s 64th minute goal to snatch a satisfying win.
In a Third Division match, Miners Sports Club defeated Ravens Sports Club by a fighting 2-1 margin. Strikers Devesh Makwana and Yaseen Shaikh were bang on target for Miners while Ravens pulled one back through Preet Chedda.
Results – Third Div: Bombay Baptist Church SC 3 (Aman Shaikh, Gautam Parmar, Vignesh Nair) beat NYASS SC 0.
Mangesh SA 0 drew with Dharavi FC 0.
Miners SC 2 (Devesh Makwana, Yaseen Shaikh) beat Ravens SC 1 (Preet Chedda).
Rising Boys Academy 2 (Mayuresh Koli, Shoaib Shaikh) beat Twinkle Stars SC 0.
First Div: P.D. Hinduja SC 8 (Omkar M. 2, Jiten S. 2, Tanmay B., Aditya C., Yash Patil, Shailesh More) beat BEST Arts and Sports Club 0.
Elite Div: Air India 1 (Arfat Ansari) beat Central Bank of India 0.
