KALYANI: Peerless Sports Club ease past Aryan Club 3-0 to log their first win in the ongoing Calcutta Premier Division – A 2016/17, here on Sunday.
Ghanefo Kromah (42nd), Sukhwinder Singh (45th) and Argha Chakraborty (89th) were on target for the Blue Brigade at Kalyani Municipal Stadium.
Going into the game, Peerless coach Fuja Tope used the rare 4-2-3-1 formetion with Rahim Nabi, who was making his club debut, as the target-man. Beside Nabi coach Fuja Tope also handed starts to Irfan Khan and Akhil Rakbanshi. However, his counterpart Rajdeep Nandi opted to go with a unchanged line-up from the previous game.
Peerless made their intentions clear as they worked with a lively pace and dominated the midfield battle. They made into the rival half with a steady flow of passes and had their first scoring opportunity as early as the 5th minute, but Argha failed to keep his effort on target off Nabi’s pass. Then, Nabi six minutes later tired his luck from outside the box but his left footed shot went ballooning over the crossbar.
Meanwhile, Aryan also created occasional counter attacks but their foreign strikers Kazeem Amobi and Obasi Moses were no match for a well drilled and organized Peerless defense led by Nigerian Eze Kingsley.
Peerless kept up the pressure on the rival goal and created handful of scoring chances but Kromah missed at least two glorious opportunities to put his side into the lead.
Fuja Tope’s men finally managed to break the deadlock three minutes before half-time when Sukhwinder rolled the ball in Kromah’s path who hit the back of the net from close range to put Peerless in front.
Just before Aryan realised their gaping loopholes, Peerless banged in another within a space of three minute through Sukhwinder. This time it was Kromah’s turn to return the favour, as he sent in a defense splitting pass for the midfielder, who slotted past Raju Ganguly to give his team a two-goal cushion going into half-time.
Changing over, Peerless maintained their strong hold on Aryan and Nabi who had a good match upfront saw his effort blocked by Raju.
Aryan who did well to soak the early pressure came with a counter move and almost pulled one back in the 64th minute but Moses’ shot missed the target by whisker.
Thereafter, Peerless had numerous chances to add to their tally, but Raju should be credited for bringing of atleast five saves as he denied Kromah and Nabi on several occasions.
However, Peerless did score the third with a minute left in the regulation time when their skipper Argha found the target after receiving a pass from Sakatar Singh.
Peerless, who are now on top of the table with 4 points from two games, will face the mighty East Bengal on 7th August at the same venue, while a day before Aryan takes on Mohun Bagan at Mohun Bagan Ground.
Photo By Santanu Biswas.