Ikhlaq fayaz

Karbi Anglong Morning Star FC: Bodoland FC bounced back from their opening match defeat to NorthEast United with a commanding 3-0 win over FC1 in a Group F fixture of the 135th Durand Cup played here at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium on Thursday.

Before a ball was kicked, there was a small gesture worth pausing on. At the coin toss, FC1 captain Ikhlaq Fayaz presented his Bodoland counterpart, Halicharan Narzary, with a sapling — a fittingly understated nod to the water-conservation and climate-awareness campaign that has quietly shaped FC1's Durand Cup debut, the same ethos stitched into the wave patterns of their new jersey. It was a nice moment, and rather a lonelier one by full time, Fayaz having spent the following ninety minutes fending off a rather less symbolic form of pressure.

Robinson Rendon put Bodoland ahead just past the hour, heading home from Narzary's cross after twice missing similar chances earlier in the evening. Substitutes Rituraj Mohan and Aron Thapa then turned a single-goal lead into a rout inside four second-half minutes, both scoring within a quarter of an hour of being introduced — timing that owed at least as much to head coach Vikash Panthi's reading of the game as it did to the finishers themselves.