BMFC were boosted by the return of custodian Kalyan Choubey after his inter-state clearance, but he probably would have liked to continue on the bench. He saw two goals go past, one through a spot kick and the other from substitute M Najeeb, and gave Mahindras coach S S Hakim plenty of reasons to smile at their ``best league performance so far''.

Manjit Singh's histrionics on being challenged by BMFC's Inchem Lanuchuba, a spectacular roll on the turf, brought swift punishment from the referee. Naushad Moosa pounded the ball into the left corner in the 43rd minute.

Substitute Khalid Siddique justified his introduction with a corner kick that found the influential Shamsi Raza who thundered in a left-footer. The bar saved Choubey from embarrassment but only for a while. The rebound found its way to Satish Minz, whoslammed home.

Siddique had made an impression a few minutes earlier with a long run and a pass to Abbas Ali Rizvi whose shot was blocked by Choubey. A save which might have given the beleaguered 'keeper a false sense of security.

Uday Konar did his bit to rescue BMFC, chasing the ball with the ferocity of a pit bull, and with low success-rate. That, in a nutshell, was the script of BMFC's performance, one man failing to prop an entire team alone.

Konar, despite scorching the turf from one end to the other, finally decided to let someone else try his luck. His centre from the left -- remarkably accurate for someone so reluctant to part with the ball -- after another tireless chase-and-grab effort, eluded P Rawat's leaping attempt. That effort, a few minutes before the final whistle, however, would have given the team just a consolation goal.

Mahindras' Minz made mincemeat of the few opportunities that came his way, the first a clear as daylight chance that sailed over. Rizvi, the provider, could onlywatch in amazement. The process repeated in the second half, in the 70th minute with the same result.

Mahindras moved to second spot behind Air-India (18 points) and on par with BMFC (16). But they have played one match less and haven't conceded a goal in the league so far.

In an earlier match, Maharashtra State Police drew goalless with Central Bank.

Other results

Division I: GMSC 2 (Sanjay Arane 2) bt Francis D'Assisi 1 (Sushant Pawar). Division II: Juhu Sparks 2 (A Creado, Robert Kunnel) bt Gulf Oil Sainath; Ryan Augustine 1 (Terence D'Cruz) bt bt Mahatma SC 0. Division III: Sagar SC 2 (Umesh Tandel, Kishore Y Tandel) bt Blue Dragons 1 (M D'Mello).