Source: Atom Samarendra - Updated at 18:00 IST
Imphal, March 19:
Meghalaya made a convincing win over Arunachal Pradesh by 7 goals to one, while Sports Authority of India (SAI) Red Guwahati held Tripura in a goalless on the fifth day of the second Dr T Ao Doner football tournament at Mapal Kangjeibung here.
One player for Meghalaya was shown red card for committing a grave fault to rival player.
Referee also flashed yellow cards to three players of Meghalaya and one player of Arunachal Pradesh.
Semi-finalist in the last year�s edition Meghalaya took maximum advantage of their opponent�s weak midfield and defence to take the lead 5th minutes into the heavily lopsided game through Perry Pde.The ball kicked by goalie of Arunachal Oyan Panyang was mistakenly landed at the foot of rival�s midfielder Shapelysen Pyngrope and beautifully crossed to Perry Pde who made no mistake to convert it into goal.
Striker Birendra Thapa scored the second goal in 8th minutes, driving home midfielder Shapelysen Pyngrope�s pass from left flank.
Seven minutes later, Kitkupar Kharshiing scored the third goal through a nice cut from Shapelysen Pyngrope in the penalty area.
The ball was crossed by the left flank by Desmond Kharpran.
In 32nd minute, Nyakam Rangmo of Arunachal Pradesh committed a fault to William Umwi in the penalty area which compelled the referee to award penalty kick.
William Umwi converted it into goal adding the goal margin by 4. Meghalaya did not allow Arunachal any space for a comeback in the second half too.
The fifth goal for Meghalaya came from Wansuk Ryambai through a beautiful shot which was supplied by Shaiwul Malngiang�s corner kick in 52nd minutes.
Seven minutes later, Arunachal Pradesh made scored a beautiful reducer through a hard shot by Koj Tatung.
The ball cut by Vickym Mipi was crossed from the right flank by Toto Takar.
William Umwi scored the sixth goal for Meghalaya in 63rd minutes.
Meghalaya�s seventh goal came from a suicide goal in 76th minutes.
Rubu Nabing of Arunachal mistakenly netted the ball in his own side.
The ball was crossed by William Umwi from centre area to Birendra Thapa in the penalty area.
Referee shown red card to Desmond Kharpran in 86th minutes for a kicking directly to the scalp of Orin Lego of Arunachal.
Referee also yellow cards to three players of Meghalaya � Kitkupar Kharshiing (69th minutes), Wansuk Rymbai (83rd minutes) and Khlain P Syiemlieh (91st minutes) and one player of Arunachal Pradesh � Naga Tallang (89th minutes).
In the second ground, SAI (Red) Guwahati held Tripura in a goalless draw.
The match is the first in the series which scored no goal against each other.
With both teams balanced on all fronts, the match proved to be an exciting affair from the start.
Both sides launched several counter and counter-attacks from the word go.
Both teams could find least number of opportunities to score goal as there was lack of passing coordination among the players of each side on different occasions.
In 32nd minutes, a beautiful hard shot by Monikanta Brahma of SAI (Red) Guwahati went above the bar.
Durga Boro of SAI (Red) Guwahati lost an opportunity to score score in the injury time of first session.
He missed the target through a free kick just from beyond the penalty area.
Even though both team tried every effort, none of them could broke the impasse by the end of first session.
The second session proved to be more exciting as both teams became more aggressive against its rival.
During this session, both sides missed number of opportunity to score goal.
Tripura seemed to be more aggressive than its rival with launching several prospective attempts which were missed by its strikers.
Litam Mazumder of Tripura missed two beautiful cross while he shot it in the goal mouth.
First shot in 59th minutes went above bar while the second attempt was beautifully cleared by SAI (Red) Guwahati goalie Alistiar Norgoyari in 64th minutes.
Another header by Sandip Das from a free kick by Narayan Debnath from the right flank was also went midair in 84th minutes.
The session thus ended with goalless draw.
Manipur is leading in Group-B by getting 6 points while Nagaland in Group-A with equal number of points.