Misfiring Sk Russel score first point

Big-spending Sheikh Russel KC earned their first point in the ongoing JB Bangladesh Premier League when they surrendered a lead to play out a 1-1 draw with Team BJMC at the Rafiq Uddin Bhuiyan Stadium in Mymensingh yesterday.

Local boy Jakir Hossain Ziku cancelled out a 25-minute header from Jean Jules Ikanga five minutes into the second half to provide the fourth draw in five matches to BJMC while bottom-placed Sheikh Russel walked away with their first draw after four losses on the trot.

Coach Maruful Haque brought four changes to Sheikh Russel's playing eleven that lost to Feni Soccer 0-2 in the previous match and the changes seemed to be working in the first half but they then faced a stiff challenge from BJMC, who came back into the match in the second half following a couple of changes up front and were unlucky not to secure all three points against the superior side. 

Sheikh Russel took a lead through Cameroonian Ikanga, who headed a Monaem Khan Raju free kick home in front of approximately 80,000-strong holiday crowd. But since then, Sheikh Russel forwards kept misfiring like in previous matches and could well have conceded a fifth straight defeat had it not been for some brilliant saves by goalkeeper Ziaur Rahman who thwarted at least three good chances from BJMC boots.

BJMC bit back soon after the break as substitute Abdullah Parvez and Mehdi Hasan Tapu threatened to pull back the lead, with the latter eventually making the play for the equaliser. Nigerian Samson Iliasu nicely released a ball for Tapu, who placed a forward-pass in first touch for Ziku and the local boy from Gafargaon levelled the margin from an angular shot five minutes into the second half.

The match could then have gone either way as Sheikh Russel forwards Shakhawat Hossain Rony and Mithun Chowdhury squandered a total of four scoring chances while BJMC's Samson and Tapu missed the open net twice.