A brace of goals by Downtown Heroes’ Liberian forward Darius Snorton Perwood against the Indian Air Force Football Team (IAFFT) here at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK), was enough to give the Club from Srinagar a historic first win in the IndianOil Durand Cup. After going down in all three games in their debut campaign last year, Perwood’s strikes on either side of the two halves in what was the second game in Group A for both teams, giving the Heroes a crucial three points in their present 133rd IndianOil Durand Cup campaign. The Airmen on the other hand have nowadays lost both their group games.
While the team for Kashmir play Emami East Bengal FC at the city’s second venue Kishore Bharati Krirangan on 7th August, the Air Force team play the other local giants Mohun Bagan Super Giants in their final group fixture a day later at the same VYBK.
Hilal Rasool Parray the Heroes’ Head Coach started with the same 3-5-2 formation that he had used in the first game against Mohun Bagan Super Giants, but made at least three changes to that 11. Priya Darshan the Air Force coach on the other hand made as many as five changes from their first game loss to Emami East Bengal FC.
The Heroes had the better of the exchanges in the first half and got the fruits of their labour in the 29th minute when forward Perwood’s penetrating run inside the box from the left, was found beautifully by Aafreen Parray and the Liberian placed the ball clinically past Dinesh in the Air Force goal.
The long ball from their own half to find Aafreen in space was floated by Mohammed Inam, who had a brilliant game controlling the midfield and distributing from it.
The second-half was played for most parts in blinding rain and while the Airmen were more enterprising, Umed in the Heroes goal was hardly troubled/throughout the game.
Perwood sealed the deal for the Heroes with a second strike in the 84th minute, latching on to a cross which found its way to him with space in the box. He controlled well, sidestepped one defender and with the keeper to beat, blasted home with a striker’s confidence.
