Tollygunge rout F C Kochin

Tollygunge Aggragami rounded off their National Football League engagements in style, routing FC Kochin 5-0 in Kochi on Monday.

Following the defeat, Kerala's FC Kochin, the country's first professional club, has been relegated to the second division.

Hardworking medio Ashim Biswas (10th and 75th), Mehtab Hossain (58th), Akeem Abolanli (70th) and Moses Oira (77th) scored for the Kolkata side.

FC Kochin, who finished fourth in the last edition of the league, could accumulate only 17 points and settled for the 11th place, just above Punjab Police, in the 12-team league.

Tollygunge swelled their tally to 23 points from 22 matches.

Tollygunge, who dominated the proceedings right through, could have won by a much higher margin, but for the brilliant goalkeeping by Kochin's Ali Abubacker.

Abubacker was at his best as he fisted over twice Mehtab's attempt from close and later brilliantly gathered a fierce drive by Akeem Abolanli. However, the local outfit suffered a jolt when Abubacker was given marching orders by referee R Krishnan for a rough tackle on Biswas just outside the box in the 71st minute.

Tollygunge tormented the rival defence which melted under pressure, though their strikers Akeem and Mehtab messed up many opportunities either by driving straight into the hands of the rival custodian or shooting wide.

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