Imphal, Aug 3 (IANS) FC Raengdai's fairytale run through the 135th Durand Cup shows no sign of running out of chapters as they overturned the home crowd and outlasted Tiddim Road Athletic Union (TRAU) FC 4-3 in a Group D contest at the Khuman Lampak Main Stadium in Imphal on Monday.

Durand Cup newcomers FC Raengdai won a match that swung on its axis often enough to leave both dugouts looking faintly seasick by the end of it.

There was barely a passage of the ninety-plus minutes that did not carry some fresh implication for the group table, and fewer still that allowed either set of supporters to settle into their seats. FC Raengdai, debutants in this competition, played like a side entirely unburdened by the occasion, while TRAU discovered that a two-goal deficit in front of their own crowd is rather more easily conjured than erased.

The result sends FC Raengdai top of Group D with six points from two matches, a start few would have predicted for a side playing only its second-ever Durand Cup fixture. Neroca sit second on one point from a single outing, with TRAU third, also on one point but with two games gone.

Indian Navy occupy fourth without a win to their name. With the group not yet at its halfway mark, the picture remains fluid, though Monday's result has plainly done TRAU's cause no favours.

Mridul Doley did most of the early damage, scoring either side of the half-hour to give FC Raengdai a cushion that looked, for a spell, entirely comfortable. TRAU's response arrived just before the interval through Chanam Akash Meitei, only for Chongtham Kishan Singh to restore the two-goal gap in first-half stoppage time.

Afdal Varikkodan pulled one back within two minutes of the restart, and when Lanchungrei Pamei turned the ball into his own net in the 67th minute, parity had been restored for the second time in an evening that seemed to specialise in it. Doley had the final word, completing his hat-trick in the 79th minute to send FC Raengdai back in front for good.

From the opening exchanges, this had the feel of an evening in which noise itself might carry Raengdai's story forward. Khuman Lampak was heaving, and though TRAU carried the greater name recognition in Manipuri football, a sizeable pocket of Imphal seemed committed to willing the outsiders on; every Raengdai touch in the TRAU half arrived to a cheer suggesting the debutants had somehow acquired a second home fixture.

Raengdai set the early tempo, TRAU responding with intent rather than incision — Zlex Khangjrakpam Mangang forcing an anxious moment from the edge of the area in the 8th minute, Akash twice going close from distance inside the opening ten.

The opener, in the 14th minute, arrived from precisely the sort of anxious clearance TRAU had until then avoided needing to make. Khunjamayum Raj Singh dawdled fractionally too long on the right and was dispossessed by Khaidem Amarjit Singh, whose pass sent Doley scything in from the left; Doley cut inside and finished beyond Sapam Nongpoknganba Singh. It continued a curious habit — in Raengdai's previous fixture it was Doley supplying Amarjit; here, the roles simply reversed.

Ten minutes later, Raengdai struck again by an almost identical mechanism. Seila Toure surrendered possession under pressure from Amarjit, whose touch found Doley on the burst; Doley held off Ronaldo Wairokpam and volleyed into the bottom corner. That both goals shared a common thread in the TRAU back line invited an obvious observation — one side a name synonymous with Manipuri football, the other playing only its second-ever Durand Cup fixture — though Raengdai seemed rather less interested in the history books than TRAU's defence was.

TRAU's response, four minutes before the interval, had been building for the best part of half an hour. Akash, having tested distance with weary regularity, finally found the target with his most ambitious effort yet, beating a diving Kamei Pantiga. Whatever momentum it supplied lasted only until stoppage time: TRAU lost the ball in the final third for a third time, and Amarjit found Kishan, who cut inside and curled a shot that took the faintest deflection before nestling in the top corner. Doley had already rattled the crossbar with a looping header moments earlier, as if the scoreline were not yet emphatic enough.

TRAU wasted little time reopening the contest after the restart. Barely two minutes in, an aerial ball caught Pantiga out off an awkward bounce; his attempted save only diverted it into the path of Afdal, whose header crossed the line despite a scrambling effort to claw it back. The goal seemed to draw some certainty out of Raengdai's stride, and for a spell the contest lost the fluency of the first half.

TRAU's pressure told again in the 67th minute. Raj's cross found Ansumana Kromah unable to make clean contact, but Afdal arrived behind him to apply enough of a touch to send the ball cannoning off Pamei and beyond his own goalkeeper — level once more.

Raengdai's response was to go again rather than retreat, and in the 79th minute they found their man for a third time. Kishan swung in a corner of real quality, and Doley rose to power home a header and complete his hat-trick.

Sensible sides, ahead late and away from home, tend to retreat and count down the clock. Raengdai did nothing of the sort, keeping men forward even as TRAU threw bodies ahead in search of parity, backed by a crowd straining for one more twist. None arrived. Raengdai, still finding their feet in Indian football's wider landscape, had beaten one of Manipur's established names on its own turf, and now sit top of Group D with plenty of the group still to play.

Tuesday's Matches

Jamshedpur FC vs Sporting Club Delhi, 4:00 PM, Birsa Munda Stadium, Ranchi

Mohun Bagan Super Giant vs South United FC, 7:00 PM, Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata

--IANS

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