Arrows hold luckless 10-man Chennai City goalless

CHENNAI: At Coimbatore's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium stands, the drummers play in a continuous rhythm to encourage their home team

Chennai City FC

(CCFC). Unfortunately,

CCFC

seldom match the energy of the musicians. On Saturday, too, the story wasn't different as a 10-man CCFC were held goalless by

Indian Arrows

.

Henry Monsang

saw the red card in the 70th minute.


The draw meant CCFC haven't tasted victory in their last five matches and will move up to eighth spot in the table with 10 points. Arrows, on the other hand, secured a point after two losses and climb to seventh spot with 11 points.

CCFC were desperate for a win and the onus was on their in-form midfielder Michael Soosairaj and striker Jean Michel Joachim - CCFC's top-scorer with five goals - to create the chances. The duo used the width of the pitch to stretch the Arrows defence and was quick in their passing to rattle the Arrows centrebacks on several occasions. However, in complete contrast to their agility, the rest of the players hardly showed the intent and courage to move forward. With Arrows preferring to sit back and play the waiting game, CCFC's lone striker Joachim, who hasn't scored in the last four matches, had too much to do in the attacking third.

CCFC got their first shot at Arrows goal in the fifth minute. Midfielder

Pandiyan Sinivasan

sent a long ball for Joachim, who showed beautiful control to bring it down with his right foot before unleashing a powerful right-footed volley. But Arrows 'keeper

Prabhsukhan Gill

fisted the ball away.

CCFC got another opportunity in the 29th minute but Soosairaj, who jumped too early, failed to connect with a cross. Six minutes later, Romario Jesuraj laid off

Edwin Vanspaul

. The midfielder did well to curl in a shot but missed the target by a whisker.

The second half saw Joachim more determined to end his goal drought. In the 48th minute, Joachim dribbled past four Arrows players and shot a powerful right-footer. But Gill, who deservedly won the Man of the Match award, denied him again. Joachim didn't get the rub of the green too as the linesman ruled the striker offside in a contentious decision in the 57th minute when he found the back of the net off a rebound.

It wasn't the end of drama as a scuffle broke out between the CCFC and Arrows players' after Henry saw his second yellow in the 70th minute after stepping onto Abhijeet Sarkar. While it hardly disturbed the Arrows' gameplan, CCFC's challenge came to a premature end as they settled for a draw.