IMPHAL, August 2: SSU Singjamei beat TRUGPU Nambol 3-1 and opens its point account at the 9th match of the ongoing 7th Manipur State League 2012 at MapalKangjeibung today. In the earlier match, SSU was lost to ESU Wangjing by 3-2 goals.
The match today between SSU and TRUGPU saw great competition between the two teams. Both the teams did not succeed in scoring any goal till the first half of the match.
In the 56th minute of second half, the referee awarded a penalty in favour of SSU of an offence of handling by TRUGPU’s defender Ng Sona while SSU’s S Santa was attempting a goal. S Santa converted the penalty to goal and took the lead by 1-0.
In the 70th minute of the match, Riyas Khan heading the ball all the way into the net of a corner kick by S Santa added the lead by 2-0.
Meanwhile, PTUGPU putting every effort to win back the goals, Robinson headed an equalizer goal in the 85th minute of the match taking advantage of a free kick by N Rajesh.
The later part of the match also saw PTUGPU giving amounted pressure to SSU and tried hard to equalize the remaining one goal. But due to lack of skill from the striker and unluckily hitting the goal post, all their attempts went in vain and could not score any further goal.
But on the contrary, SSU players playing counter attack were able to add another goal in 90+1 minute (additional time) by MD SahidurRahaman through a short pass by L Gogocha and confirmed its win by 3-1 goals.
MdShahidurRahaman (58th minute) and P Narayanda (83rd minute) of SSU were shown yellow cards by the referee during the match.
Speaking at the post match, SSU’s coach L Dhonen Singh said there was lots of pressure as both the teams lost in their earlier matches. He gave the reason of eight players of his team suffering with fever when they played the earlier match for the reason behind their defeat in the earlier match.
“But this time most of our players have recovered and they have played well and won the match. Still there are many loopholes on the side of our defenders and we are working on it,” he added.
TRUGPU’s coach Ruhikanta said the team had played well in the earlier first half but the 56th minute penalty awarded by the referee killed the tempo of the team. The penalty could have not been awarded as in an earlier match such similar incident happened and was not awarded penalty. The injured played also played today but he could not perform well due to his injuries.