Kerala win by five goals; TN trash HP; Delhi out
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Chennai, May 26 2009:
In today's first match of the 63rd National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy which was played between Chandigarh and Kerala of Cluster I at Nehru Stadium, Coimbatore, Kerala beat Chandigarh 5-0 .
Kerala have started their campaign in style as Zubair KP's quickfire double in the 35th and 38th minutes has given his side a 2-0 lead at half-time.
And they continued where they left off as T.Bineesh Balan in the 67th minute, Sakeer M.P.in the 84th minute and captain N.P.Pradeep in the last minute added to the misery of the Chandigarh team.
Kerala were scheduled to start their campaign against Nagaland but after the latter's unexpected withdrawal from the Santosh Trophy, Cluster I was reduced to a three-team affair and Kerala had to wait two more days to kick off their campaign.
Cluster III (St.
Joseph's College Ground, Tiruchirappalli)
Madhya Pradesh 2-2 Mizoram
Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram are level at 2-2 the end of full time, which is a surprise as MP hold the stronger Mizoram who have a number of I-League players in their ranks.
Earlier today, Jammu and Kashmir won their match against Pondicherry by a solitary goal to lead the group with four points from two matches, at least, till the end of this match.
Cluster V (DBYC Stadium (Wisdom Town), Thiruvallore)
Delhi 1-2 Assam
Delhi had a nightmarish Santosh Trophy as they lost 1-2 against Assam.
Having lost their first game to Indian Railways, Delhi are out of contention of progressing further in the tournament.
With Assam meeting Railways in a couple of days to play out the group winners.
Cluster VIII (Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai)
Tamil Nadu 11-0 Himachal Pradesh
Hosts Tamil Nadu are continuing where they left off against Rajasthan having scored 11 goals against Himachal Pradesh in their match at the Nehru Stadium.
Himachal Pradesh are out having lost their first game against Tripura 2-0 .