Pune FC began their campaign in the 124th Durand Cup sharing a point and a goal with ONGC at the Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi.

Fielding a totally new team, includes three from the Under-19 squad, in view of the historic first against Blackburn Rover FC to be held on October 7, Pune FC ended up unlucky not to come with clear three points by conceding an injury time goal off an unfortunate deflection.

After a goalless first-half, Pune FC were the first to take the lead through medio Karma Tsewang (60th minute) before ONGC’s Kailash Patil (90th minute) dampened Pune FC’s hopes with a drive that defender Rollingson Hyungyo got a foot to, but distracted ‘keeper Amrinder Singh.

Pune FC began the game by sustaining ONGC’s dominance in the first 10 minutes. In the second minute, Amrinder conceded a indirect free-kick on top-of the box for holding on to the ball for long. ONGC, however, did not extract much from the situation.

As ONGC pushed hard making most of their moves from the right wing the Pune FC goal survived a couple of tries that went over. Having overcome early hiccups, Pune FC settled into constructing their own moves with medio Lalrempuia, an PPFCA Academy recruit, doing well to control in the midfield.

Pune FC then had lady-luck deny them a goal when striker Nirmal Kumar on a solo run got past two opponents to have his left footer crash onto the horizontal. His counterpart Jeh Williamson then had a chance, which went abegging due to momentary lapse.

Switching sides, Pune FC did well to bottle up ONGC’s right wing and fifteen minutes into the second session forced a goal. Defender Kamaljeet Kumar released the ball to Maninder Singh who cut in beating a defender and found Karma in the clear on the right. Karma running in did well to take a first timer from 20 yards out to the corner of the goal at the far end.

The goal was Karma’s first in Pune FC colors. The second half had Pune FC bring in Nikhil Kadam for Nirmal, which made a huge difference upfront as the latter was quick, created good moves and combined with Jeh well.

As the game went past full time, ONGC’s Kailash in a last-gasp effort set off on a solo down the middle and released a try, which ended up in the net a minute before the end of the three given in injury time.

The effort by Pune FC was creditable as five players were given their career’s first-start, four were on their second outing for Pune FC and one in his third.

Pune FC now faces a must-win situation when they play Air-India on October 10 in their last Group-3 encounter. A win will certainly gain Pune FC a berth in the semifinals.