Manipur football team gave a fitting Ningol Chakkouba gift to the ningols - a gift which will be cherished for years to come. The gift -becoming the first team from the state to win the National Football Championship, the proud possessor of the 58th LG Santosh Trophy today after defeating defending champion Kerala.

Kerala, a former champion in four and runners up in six previous editions of the Santosh Trophy, was done in by a brilliant goal from W Tomba in the 3rd minute of extra time - a golden goal in every sense of the word.

With this defeat Kerala handed over the trophy to Manipur who became National Champion for the first time and created history. Kerala won the trophy last year after defeating Goa with a golden goal (3-2) at Cooperage ground, Mumbai.

Today's final was an exiting match with some few moments of inspired and creative football from both teams.

Host team started in an attacking mood from the beginning, in the first two minute itself L Tiken was in a very good position to open the account for Manipur but failed to connect a good cross by M James.

In the sixth minute of the match L Tiken Singh headed in a stupendous throw from L Uttamkumar, helping Manipur take an early lead, always helpful in any match, more so in a final match.

This is what the over twenty thousand crowds had come to watch and the whole stadium erupted in a deafening ear splitting roar of applause.

With the strong combination of Th Bungo, P Kennedy, W Tomba and L James in the mid fields, the strikers got enough chances to kick on the opponent goal mouth from the beginning of the match.

The second chance for Manipur came in the 12th minutes of the first half but L James kicked over the bar. In the next minute M Bijen, who won the highest goal scorer of the tournament award missed a header after a fine cross by L Uttamkumar.

Kerala's custodian Purushothaman was tested severely by some of the host team's strikers.

Kerala in the greater-part of first half could not keep pace with the fast moving and one-touch passing of the Manipur team. Also they seem to be playing much slower than in their previous matches. After the match Kerala team coach M Peethambaran disclosed that the main reason behind this is because of injury to some key players.

The first half of the match ended with one goal advantage in favor of the Manipur side; incidentally this half was totally dominated by the host and deserved more goals to its credit. M Bijen was awarded a caution in the 27th minutes by referee SM Balu.

Five minutes before winding up the first half, Mohan Bagan star P Kennedy kick a superb free lack form 30 yards and was saved by the custodian Purushothaman who pushed over the bar. In the second-half Kerala put a slightly better show.

But even in this half the play overall was dominated by Manipur. M Bijen made an attempt in the early second half who kicks outside the goal mouth while in the 71st min L James missed a golden chance kick just outside the goal mouth.

Kerala's first genuine goal attempt came in the 81st min from Asif Saheer who missed to touch the net after a fine header. The final five minutes of the second half was played very fast by the Keralites.

In the 87th min Shabeer Ali had a good opportunity but kicked straight to Noren, the Manipur goalkeeper.

Kerala bounced back after finding their equalized goal in the 88th min from substitute Abdul Noushad who lobbed the ball over the head of an advancing Noren into the net after collecting the ball from a wonderful defense shattering chip from Muhammed Shafeeq.

With this last minute equalized goal, a lull descended in the stadium with the 25,000 crowd going absolutely silent. At the end of the full time, the match was locked in 1-1.

Muhammed Shafeeq and Asif Saheer were booked caution each in the 70th and 76th minutes respectively.

And the match again kicked off for the extra time, the team scoring the first goal becoming the champion.

W Tomba netted the golden goal of the match in just three minutes from the kick off for extra time from a superbly unbelievable shoot; Keralites protested the golden goal alleging the ball had landed on the net from outside.

Kerala coach Peethambaran disclosed that they had their doubts about the golden, goal but his team accepts the referee decision.

It was a clear cut golden goal and don't have any doubt, said Priyaranjan Das Munsi, AIFF President, while speaking to the media after the match.

CM O Ibobi presented the winning trophy to the Manipur Football team W Tomba awarded the most valuable player of the match.

Manipur:
H Noren, L Uttamkumar, L Manitombi, Kh Ratal, L Shyamananda, L James, W Tomba, M Bijen, L Tiken, Th Bungo (N Helen 80th min), P Rennedy.

Kerala:
Purushothaman TG, Bineesh K (Shiva Kumar 56th min), Muhammed Shafeeq VM, Vinu Jose, Sameer K, Suresh Babu V (Abdul Noushad 62nd min), Ajayan K, Shabeer Ali T, Ignitious S, Abdul Hakkim ( Boni Face 72nd min), Asif Saheer T.