Bodoland FC Stuns FC1 with 3-0 Win in Durand Cup

It was not an ideal opening match for Bodoland FC against NorthEast United. They were drubbed 6-0 by the NE giants. After losing, Bodoland made amends to their flaws and made a comeback against FC1 on Thursday. In a Group F fixture in Guwahati, the Assam team beat FC1 3-0. What seems the highlight of the match was just before the kick-off when FC1 captain Ikhlaq Fayaz presented Bodoland counterpart, Halicharan Narzary, with a sapling. Conservation and climate-awareness campaign has quietly filtered into Durand Cup. 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 Monday's 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.