Mridul doley

Khuman Lampak Main Stadium: 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.