Meghalaya oust Andaman 5-0, UP tame Mizoram 3-1

Gurgaon, Sep 17 (UNI) Rockus Lamare and Niwan Gatphoh struck a brace each as a rampagign Meghalaya blanked lowly Andaman and Nicobar 5-0 in a Cluster II tie of the 61st National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy here today.

With this loss, Andaman is eliminated from the tournament.

Leading 1-0 at half time, Meghalaya dominated proceedings right from the beginning and created openings almost at will and could have won by a bigger margin had their forwards not wasted oportunities that came their way.

Andaman also made couple of good moves in the first session with Wellington and Francis combining in tandem but their goalward shots failed to beat Meghalaya custodian. In fact Meghalaya goalkeeper Markush Basumatary was never seriously tested throughout the match.

And after Lot Thomson of Andaman was red-carded in the 50th minute for handling the ball while trying to clear it, the floodgates were open for the Meghalaya lads and in fact every goalward move threatened to bring down Andaman citadel.

Andaman players, who used the off-side trap effectively against UP, failed to do it today and on many occasions, Meghalaya forwards breached the trap and created many openings.

Meghalaya forced the lead in the 11th minute through Roland Tyngrope while Lamare scored in the 56th and 67th minutes. Niwan scored in 80th and 82nd to round off the tally.

Receiving a long aerial pass from central defender Poibiang Pohshna, Salgaocar player Rockus got the better of a couple of rival defenders and essayed a cross from the left of the box and Roland's connecting right-footer beat the diving goalkeeper to open account.

The second goal was scored almost in similar fashion. This time the supplier was Kyrshan Lyngshing and Rockus was the scorer.

Rockus completed his brace after he found himself unmarked on the top of the box after receing a pass from Kyrshan from the right, and he made no mistake in putting the ball into the net.

Even after a 3-0 lead, Meghalaya boys continued the offensive and Rockus' measured pass from their own half breached the Andaman offside trap and an overlapping Niwan found himself only with the goalkeeper to beat and he slotted the ball home.

Niwan then rounded off the tally after collecting a ball from Lekinz Suting from the left flank and beating the Andaman goalkeeper with a right-footer.

Earlier in the morning session, Uttar Pradesh came from behind and scored three second half goals to down Mizoram 3-1 to record their second successive win in Cluster II.

After a barren first half, which was reduced to a midfield scramble, Uttar Pradesh was jolted out of its inertia when Mizoram took lead in the 48th minute through Lalsangliana.

That served a wake up call and Amit Singh struck soon to draw parity.

Prahlad Rawat fetched lead for UP when he scored in the 76th minute and within four minutes, former international Jatin Singh Bisht found the target to round off the tally for UP.

UP and Meghalaya match on Tuesday promises to be a pot-bioler with the winner making to the pre-quarterfinal knockout stage.

UNI PDS AY BS1844