The Rangdajied United FC versus Dempo SC match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong on Friday turned out to be a match with a tale of two halves. If the 1st half belonged to the visitors, the 2nd half show by the host made the people of Shillong proud.

Rangdajied United came back from a two first-half goal deficit to split points with the Goan side. Beto gave Dempo the lead in the 6th minute of the match when he curved in a freekick from just the edge of the box before Billy Mehmet scored from a penalty in the added time of the first half.

In return, Lalnunpuia and substitute Sandesh Gadkari cancelled out the deficit to register the 1st point for Rangdajied United in the I-League.

Playing their first ever home match of the tournament, Rangdajied United, backed by the vociferous Friday afternoon crowd, didn’t get the start they wanted as Beto forced them on the backfoot.

With Lamine Tamba the only foreigner in the squad, the home team thereafter did struggled to find their foot. But they soon settled down and had a chance at the goal when skipper Eugeneson Lyngdoh threaded the ball through the strong Dempo defence for Restomwell Khriam. Khriam controlled the ball well and took a left footer that went whistling pass the bar.

Gaining confidence, the home team up their tempo and unleashed series of attack from the midfield with the captain taking the work load on him. But the Santosh Kashyap team couldn’t breached the Dempo defence, who were playing in the absence of their head coach Arthur Papas.

Dempo then created another scoring chance in the 35th minute when the midfield stitched series of passes together before Jeje shot the ball inches away from the woodwork. Rangdajied responded immediately with T. Lannunpui and Thomas Saikhom playing a one touch game from the centre before passing it to David Ngaihte. Ngaihte then rounded off two defenders just to shoot off the target.

With the 4th referee adding two minutes, Rangdajied were more content to see of the time when the worst happened. Thomas Saikhom brought down Billy Mehmet inside the box. The referee, without any hesitation pointed towards the spot. Mehmet stepped up to take the kick and sent the diving goalkeeper the wrong way to give Dempo a 2 goal cushion at the break.

Changed of end saw the home team coming in with full vigour as Lalnunpuia whipped in a scorcher from just outside the edge of the box to send the capacity crowd erupting in joy. Gaining confidence from the goal, Rangdajied looked a different team as they kept the pressure on the visitors. They created chances after chances but failed to make any difference.

In the 70th minute Timothy Lugun nearly came up with the equaliser when his scorching left footer went straight to the goalkeeper. But keeping the pressure on, Rangdajied were soon rewarded with the equaliser when substitute Sandesh Gadkari placed the ball into the far post to once again send the ever cheering crowd into rupture again.

The last few minutes saw the Meghalaya team coming all out in the attack looking for the winner. Substitute Elam Abocha Singh in the 88th minute dribbled past two defenders as he forced Subhashish to come up with another diving save from inside the box.

However, in the end, the home team had to remain content with just a point. They have now registered 1 point from 3 matches.

Coach Santosh Kashyap was a happy man and he lauded the performance of his boys. However, he pronounced his displeasure with the referees. “I am happy with the way my boys played, especially the way they played in the 2nd half, but we didn’t win the match because of referee’s error,” Kashyap said, referring to the penalty awarded to Dempo.

Rangdajied United FC next play Churchill Brothers on 10th of October.