Bangalore, Jan 12: The solitary-goal win against Indian Bank in their opening encounter having given enough boost to their morale, Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) would seek to consolidate their position in Group B of the third edition of the National Football League, when they take on Mahindras, Mumbai at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Wednesday. Much would depend on the outcome of this match, for the enhancement of ITI's chances to qualify from this six-team group.Mahindras, on the other hand, would seek to redeem a dented pride, having lost 0-3 in their first match to Salgaocar. Mahindras who won three all-India tournaments in a row are yet to find their bearings in this league with their line-up having undergone an almost complete change as compared to that of last year's.Giving Mahindras' campaign a shot in the arm would be the return of Sushanto Mazumdar, who was forced out of the opening match due to an injury. Nigerian Bernard, Naushad Moosa and Khalid Siddique in the deep defence wouldcertainly like to forget the Goan nightmare with a good performance here. The striking duo of Bernard's compatriot Loloo Nwike and Manjit Singh also would like to justify the faith posed in them.But the absence of the skilled Mohammed Shaqueel and Bangladeshi Munna would be definitely felt, when Hakim's boys take on ITI. The former is yet to resume duty for his side having missed the previous game too due his father's death, while the latter is unlikely to play in the entire league owing to an injury. Goalkeeper Manoj Jaggi will replace Salim Ansari after the latter's injury during the first match.ITI, on the contrary, start without any of these problems. The only cause of worry for coach Krishnoji Rao would be the struggle of his `local' players to combine with the foreign players, all from Kyrgyzstan to necessary levels.The Kyrgyz trio of Aleksey Drobotov (who scored the match-winner against Indian Bank), Kiril Keker and Sergey Kaliubin, the midfield duo who played their roles to perfection, had shownenough evidence of their talent in the previous match, but their `Indian' teammates did struggle to combine well with them.``We have re-worked our strategy as to how to improve the co-ordination between the foreign and local players. And as such there will be no change in our starting line-up. We will definitely put up a better show than the last match,'' coach Krishnoji Rao concluded.
