Mumbai: Home favourites Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF) paid the penalty as they crashed at the first hurdle losing to G.M. Sports 5-6 via the tie-breaker in a first round match of the sixth RCF Premier Cup Football Tournament– 2014, sponsored by Deserve Group, and played under floodlights at the picturesque RCF Ground, Chembur. The tournament is being conducted under the aegis of the MDFA.
RCF, winners of the title in the inaugural edition in 2004, started off on a promising note and took the lead through their influential striker Raju Meetei. However, G.M. Sports staged a solid fight back and struck twice to snatch a 2-1 lead before Kevin Patrick provided RCF a lifeline by scoring a late equaliser to take the match into the penalty shootout.
In the crucial tie-breaker, G.M. Sports showed better nerves and successfully converted four of their five attempts through Robin Kujur, Hasan Goliwala, Clyde Noronha and Tushar Poojari, while RCF managed to score only from three of their tries through Meetei, Kuldip Masih and Vhundhavan Punna and bowed out.
