MUMBAI, Nov 23: It WAS "floodlight robbery", nothing else.

Mohun Bagan, Calcutta, and Churchill Brothers, Goa, scripted a night of shame as their make-believe goalless draw in the Rovers Cup football at the Cooperage hauled both sides into the semi-finals from quarter-final league Group X at the expense of local challengers Air-India.

The mock battle enacted tonight ensured both sides Rs 1.25 lakh that featuring in the semifinals would entail but cheated a packed house of about 12,000 spectators who could well have paid something in the neighbourhood of Rs two lakh or more.

Match commissioner MG Suvarna refused to comment on the sordid happenings but coaches Aberto Joanes (Churchill Brothers) and Sajal Bose (Mohun Bagan) added insult to injury with their comments.

Joanes said: ``My key players were injured and I had no option but to instruct my team to play for a draw. My team played very well tonight.''

Bose, reluctant to comment at first, asked pressmen to write what they had seen but quickly spoke further when pressed for definite statements. He said: ``We played ultra-defensive. We had many injuries and we had to play for a draw.''

Victors tonight, amid a cruel blow to soccer and its fans, must be Mumbai's spectators. It seemed impossible at one stage, as the Cooperage turned into a cauldron of derision, that violence could be avoided. But apart from mild lathi charges here and there and an attempt to set the North Stand on fire, the multitude dispersed peacefully.

One doubts Churchill and Bagan were being honest tonight. Closer to the truth perhaps is that they failed woefully in acting, making pathetic attempts at `playing'.

Today's goings-on were devoid of tackles, but it would have hardly pleased Frenchman Michel Platini or Fifa in their efforts to encourage clean play. Even for that matter, those advocating less blowing of the whistle.

Referee Bosco Pereira scarcely used his lungs -- one spell of nearly 20 minutes elapsed without the whistle being heard. No surprise, since the play was gentler than practice sessions.

Mockery reached morbid proportions when a player agonised at letting the ball escape him, and on another occasion, when firing well over the bar after clearly aiming to do so.

Nothing worse than when Bagan's Dipendu Biswas fell to the earth and limped off the field. One wagers it could only have been a stiff muscle stemming from inactivity!

Today's pact of non-aggression takes Churchill Brothers to the top of the group with five points but with a goal record of three for, two against. Bagan are on equal points but have two for and one against.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.