Mahindra, Salgaocar in last eight: Fed Cup

Bombay champions and strong contenders Mahindra United hung on to a first-half goal to prevail over Indian Telephone Industries, Bangalore, 1-0 in the pre-quarter-finals of the Federation Cup football tournament in Madras on Monday.

Wing back Surukumar Singh scored the all-important goal in the 13th minute.

In another match, played later in the evening, former champions Salgaocar, Goa, squeaked past a fighting Punjab Police 5-4 via the tie-breaker to join Mahindra United in the quarter-finals.

In a contest that went down to the wire, both Salgaocar and the policemen had chances galore during regulation time and in extra-time but failed to break the goalless deadlock.

In the tie-breaker, J Murali, V K Harish, Climax Lawrence, Dharamjit Singh and Remy Colaco converted for Salgaocar while Balwinder Singh, Sher Singh, Gurpreet Singh (jr) and Gurinderpal Singh scored from the first four attempts for the policemen. Naresh Kumar's shot was saved by Salgaocar custodian Kalyan Dubey.

As expected, it was Mahindra who called the shots in the initial phase and forged ahead thanks to the fine effort of Surukumar Singh. Medio Mir Farooq Hyder sent in a measured cross from the half line to Abvhishek Yadav, who relayed it to Surukumar. The wily wing-back moved to his left and unleashed a fierce shot from a good 20 yards, which caught the ITI defence and custodian N Balaji by surprise.

Mahindra enjoyed more of the ball and twice came close to increasing the lead. Once Surukumar's right footer, in the 34th minute, hit the post and on the second occasion, five minutes later, Abhishek's shot hit the post. Goalkeeper Balaji, who sustained a an injury a few minutes earlier following a collision with his teammate Jithesh while going for a high ball, failed to collect the ball. However, none of the Mahindra players were present to cash in on the rebound.

In the second half, ITI had a chance to equalise in the fifth minute. Off a flag kick, Sanjeeb came up with a neat header only to see Mahindra custodian Virender Singh blocking it. As the ball bounced, Shamshu Raza attempted a shot which hit Mahindra's Nigerian defender Bernard Oparanazie, who did well to clear.

The performance of Mahindras suddenly dipped as they looked content in defending the lead. The Bangalore outfit in turn resorted to swift moves, with Amandeep Singh, Zaheer Abbas, Shamshu Raza and Mahendra Mani doing the hard wrok. But Sanjeeb and Manjit upfront were thwarted by the stoic Mahindra defence manned by the two Nigerians-- Habia Adenkunle and Bernard. The two strongmen hardly gave any room for the ITI strikers to penetrate.

Earlier Federation Cup reports:
Day 1: Dempo win Fed Cup opener
Day 2: Golden goal win for Sporting Club de Goa
Day 3: Air India down Mohd. Sporting; SBT win
Day 4: Dempo shock F C Kochin: Federation Cup
Day 5: National champions East Bengal shocked