Guwahati, Aug 6 (IANS) Bodoland FC bounced back from their opening match defeat to NorthEast United with a commanding 3-0 win over FC1 in a Group F fixture of the 135th Durand Cup played here at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium on Thursday.

Before a ball was kicked, there was a small gesture worth pausing on. At the coin toss, FC1 captain Ikhlaq Fayaz presented his Bodoland counterpart, Halicharan Narzary, with a sapling — a fittingly understated nod to the water-conservation and climate-awareness campaign that has quietly shaped FC1's Durand Cup debut, the same ethos stitched into the wave patterns of their new jersey. It was a nice moment, and rather a lonelier one by full time, Fayaz having spent the following ninety minutes fending off a rather less symbolic form of pressure.

Robinson Rendon put Bodoland ahead just past the hour, heading home from Narzary's cross after twice missing similar chances earlier in the evening. Substitutes Rituraj Mohan and Aron Thapa then turned a single-goal lead into a rout inside four second-half minutes, both scoring within a quarter of an hour of being introduced — timing that owed at least as much to head coach Vikash Panthi's reading of the game as it did to the finishers themselves.

The result leaves Group F intriguingly poised. Bodoland move to three points from two matches, still working off a negative goal difference after that opening humbling but very much back in contention on the back of a result that will have done wonders for confidence.

FC1, despite the defeat, remain level on three points from two games courtesy of their opening victory, and sit second in the table, above Bodoland on goal difference alone. NorthEast United top the group unbeaten, with Karbi Anglong Morning Star FC yet to open their account.

The opening exchanges gave little hint of what was to follow, with both sides trading possession in a congested midfield without troubling either goalkeeper. Bodoland were the first to find their bearings, Robinson forcing his way into the box in the seventh minute only for two alert FC1 defenders to close him down before he could shape a proper shot.

FC1's captain, Fayaz, was the busiest man in the opening quarter-hour, marshalling a backline under steady pressure — busy enough, in fact, that an ankle twist that looked to have ended his evening early instead earned only a stoppage for treatment before he waved away the physio and carried on.

Bodoland's grip tightened through the rest of the half. Norberto's cross found Robinson unmarked in the 21st minute, but the header lacked the venom to trouble Aftab Ashraf, and a follow-up effort from distance drifted into the side netting.

Narzary's delivery found Robinson again in the 29th minute, this time without success, and by the 45th minute Bodoland's best chance of the half had gone begging when Gwgwmsar Gayary, presented with the simplest of finishes at the far post, contrived to miss the target entirely. Every surge forward drew a roar from a home crowd clearly enjoying the shape of the evening, a soundtrack FC1 had to defend against as much as the football itself. FC1's only meaningful reply came via Hayat Bashir's tight-angle effort in the 32nd minute and a stoppage-time free kick from Farhan Fayaz that cleared the bar by a comfortable distance.

The second half began with the sort of moment every defender secretly rehearses: Urjoy Brahma, ordinarily occupied with rather less glamorous duties, advanced deep into opposition territory and let fly from long range — the kind of strike that, on a different night, makes a reputation. This was not that night, the ball sailing well off target, though the ambition suggested a Bodoland side unwilling to sit on what they already had.

The breakthrough, when it came in the 57th minute, had an air of inevitability about it. Narzary skinned his marker down the left and delivered a measured cross for Robinson, whose header this time found the corner rather than the goalkeeper's gloves. FC1 responded with their most sustained spell of the match, Huzafah Ahmad Dar narrowly failing to level in the 61st minute, but the trade-off was Bodoland space in behind, and Robinson somehow contrived to miss an even better chance three minutes later, completely unmarked from another Narzary cross.

By the 78th minute, any lingering FC1 hope had been extinguished twice over. Rituraj, on for barely half an hour, pounced on a loose ball after Narzary's free kick struck the wall, nutmegging Ashraf for his first involvement to count. Four minutes later, Thapa added gloss neither side needed, riding a challenge to surge into the box and finish low with real composure, the sort of goal that closes a chapter rather than opens one.

FC1's attacking threat, understandably, drained away in the final exchanges, though nothing in their effort suggested a side short of application, merely one comprehensively outplayed on the night. For Bodoland, the response to Guwahati's earlier humbling could hardly have been more emphatic, nor Panthi's substitutions better vindicated. Somewhere in the away dressing room, presumably, that sapling will need rather more careful tending than Bodoland's evening did.

Friday’s matches:

Group C: SC Delhi vs Defenders FC, Birsa Munda Football Stadium, Ranchi

Group A: East Bengal FC vs South United FC, Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata

--IANS

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