Javed Pathan

mumbai: promoted side maharashtra state police, playing 30 minutes of the second half with 10 men, held on to javed pathan's brilliant 36th minute effort to record their second successive win in the haywards 5000 harwood league match played at the cooperage on friday. msp were reduced to 10 players in the 60th minute when sanjay marke received the second yellow card of the match for controlling the ball with his arm.earlier marke had been shown a yellow card for rough play in the first session. boi started well and enjoyed the better of exchanges in the first quarter. in the 13th minute a fine pass by hasan rizvi put striker stephen menezes in the clear but the striker fumbled with the goalkeeper at his mercy. a couple of minutes later touch eluded stephen again at the goalmouth. the most glaring miss came at the half-hour mark, with hasan shooting wide from handshaking distance. at the other end, police had only a ankalesh yesu side-volley to show for an attack in the period. struggling to break the shackles, the police players known for their physical play, resorted to their wicked ways as they went for the man instead of the ball. heated exchanges followed between the players as temperatures rose. and only referee joaquim varela's no-nonsense approach kept tempers under control — the 10-minute period witnessing three players being cautioned with yellow cards. boi players looked rattled by the cop's intimidating tactics, the uneven hard surface also played on the players mind and the hesitancy in boi's approach was but natural. as a result, boi's game fell apart and pathan's stunning effort in the 35th minute sounded their death knell. using mangesh yerkhede as a wall, pathan broke through the boi defence before drilling a powerful grounder from the top of the box into the left corner of the net. the second half was relatively peaceful with msp concentrating on defending their lead.