UP blank Andaman 3-0, Meghalaya stun Mizoram 1-0

Gurgaon, Sep 15 (UNI) A far-from-impressive Uttar Pradesh was good enough to blank unfancied Andaman and Nicobar 3-0 in a Cluster II match of the 61st National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy here today.

in the morning session, Meghalaya stunned Mizoram 1-0 in another Cluster II match at the same venue.

The Uttar Pradesh team, with couple of players from top clubs like Mahindra United and Vasco, could have won the match by a bigger margin and they got at least half a doze sitters in the match against lowly Andaman and Nicobar.

The boys from Andaman, mostly from SAI centre at Port Blair, made good use of the off-side trap and thwarted many UP forays.

The scorers for the winners were Hadi Hassan Khan (12th minute), Peter Siddiqi (63rd) and former international Jatin Bisht (89th).

UP took lead when Hassan Khan tapped in a cross from the left flank to beat rival custodian all ends up.

After the goal, UP kept up the pressure for the next 25 minutes but failed to give the finishing touches to the moves. In the 40th minute, they missed an easy chance when stiker Prahlad Rawat, fed by an inch-perfect Jatin Bisht through pass, fired it over the bar.

After the breather, the first 15 minutes was an even affair with the Andaman boys playing their heart out. Silvester and Wellington led some good moves but with the experienced Peter Siddiqi manning the defence with elan, they could not score.

UP increased margin from a freekick when Kamal Thapa's cross from the middle of the Andaman half beat the whole defence to find the outstretched leg of Siddiqi and the bail sailed over the leaping goalkeeper into the net.

Jatin Bisht, though not in his elements, rounded off the tally scoring after a one-to-one with Thapa and the former India player's half volley from inside the box gave no chance to the Andaman goalkeeper.

UP play Mizoram on September 17 while Andaman play Meghalaya on the same day.

Earlier in the morning session, Rocus Lamere's 70th minute strike helped Meghalaya upset Mizoram in the Cluster -II match by the solitary goal.

With a number of TFA players in the ranks, Mizoram was expected to have a cakewalk but lowly Meghalaya turned the table on the favourites and walked away with fullpoints from the match.

UNI PDS AY DB1842