USFC holds Pailan Arrows to a draw

BHAICHUNG BAGS RED CARD ON I-LEAGUE DEBUT, APOLOGISES TO FANS AND TEAM
GANGTOK, 04 Nov: Home club United Sikkim Football Club could not register a win today but managed to add another point to their aggregate. In its fourth home match, USFC held Pailan Arrows to a goalless draw and now has 4 points from its four home matches in this I-League season.
The match played at Paljor Stadium today also saw USFC co-owner, Bhaichung Bhutia joining his team on field towards the end of the match.
As for the match, while Pailan Arrows strikers launched some good attacks in the early minutes of the match the home club responded with equal vigour.
In the closely played match, former India skipper Bhaichung also stepped onto the field in the last 15 minutes replacing Rahul Jaiswal of USFC. However, the scoreboard remained blank and instead Bhaichung earned a red card in the 84th minute for a foul and got sent off the field. Earlier, he had received a yellow card in the 77th minute followed by another yellow card.
With a man down, the 10-member USFC team fought hard in the last minutes of the match to keep Pailan Arrows from scoring.
Speaking to media persons after the match, Bhaichung expressed his apologies to all fans and his teammates for receiving the red card in the match. “I am sorry to all fans and my teammates about this. It will not happen again”, said Bhaichung.
He went on to add that 1 point was better than not having any and that 4 points in four matches was good but the team still needs to perform better in other matches in the league.
USFC coach, Phillipe De Ridder said that the home team played a decent game to secure 1 point.
Speaking on the four home matches, he said, “I would have been happier with 7 points from these four home matches but 4 points is good enough”.
On local players Ashish Chettri and Nima Tamang, who played in the first eleven in today’s match, he said that Nima did a decent job in his first match and with more experience in the coming matches he could do better. About Ashish, he said that he is still recovering from injuries and after full recovery he can do better. However, Linekar and Mun Mun have been performing consistently well, said the coach.
On playing away matches, the coach stated that the team is all set as being a professional club, the team has to play in all types of environment and climatic conditions.
Meanwhile, the Pailan Arrows coach, Arthur Papas also expressed satisfaction over his team’s performance stating that the team had around 80% ball possession in the match.
Responding to media queries, the coach stated that maintaining the unbeaten record was not important but improving with every match was more important for the team.
Also in the match today, Swar Sikkim felicitated Bhaichung Bhutia for his contribution towards the game of football during half-time.