Having made it to its maiden final in the long history of the tournament, an upbeat Manipur will be eyeing their chances for the title when they clash with defending champions Kerala in the final of the 58th national football championships for Santosh Trophy.

The home team which entered the final defeating Goa 4-3 via tie-breaker in the replayed semifinal after the crowd violence stopped the match midway on Saturday when Goa were leading 1-0, will be definitely trying to prove that yesterday's victory was not a fluke. The hosts will be hoping to capitalize on the home advantage to put it across the four-time winners and six-time runners-up Kerala who will be equally determined to retain the coveted trophy in the final in what promises to be a thrilling contest.

Kerala, who have impressed as the most compact team with balance in all departments, made no secret that they would play attacking football to outwit the home side's defence which showed signs of chinks at times under pressure of rival attacks in their previous matches. Manipur defence in comparison to the forward line is weak and we would play attacking football to defend the title, Kerala coach M Peethambaran told PTI during a practice session today.

Kerala coach put his faith in his express forward line comprising Asif Saheer, Abdul Hakkim, Sylvester Ignatious, T Usman and Shabeer Ali and hoped boys will repeat the strong showing they have put up in the quarter-final league stage beating formidable Bengal. He revealed that Kerala will play in the 4-3-3 formation as it has been able to strike the right chord with the likes of seasoned Suresh Babu and international K Ajayan functioning tirelessly to feed the team's three-men attack.

Kerala boasts of a strong defence with Mohammad Shafeeq and Vinoor Jose in the middle who have fizzled out many a rival attacks and two men on the wings - Bineesh K and Sameer K have been excellent. We are not overawed by the vocal crowd and tremendous support for the home side and we would play our own game in our own style, the Kerala coach said in an apparent reference to Friday's crowd violence during Manipur-Goa semi-final tie.

Manipur have been strengthened in the current championship by the services of the outstation players like M Bijen, Manitombi, Tomba, Bungo, James, thanks to the new AIFF directive which makes it mandatory that the players should represent their states (with the exception of only Services and Railways). Bijen Singh in particular had a fantastic toumament and is so far the top scorer with ten goals and has impressed all with his electrifying runs with the bills. Besides the famed Manipur forwards which may give enough anxious moments for Kerala.

The goalkeeper H Noren, who has displayed a gritty performance, may also prove to be a stumbling block for the defending champions. �I have got a particular game plan which should not be divulged now as it would go to the advantage of Kerala but I would assure that my boys would go all out and not dishearten the home supporters�, said Manipur coach Shantikumar and admitted that the team did not play to its potential in that match and hoped they would learn from their mistakes in the crucial match against Kerala.

I would rather consider myself lucky that our team has gone through as Goa played an extremely good game particularly their forwards including Alvito D' Cunha and Jules Dias Alberto, he said. Shantikumar said his forward line consisting of the famous India players Kennedy, M Bijen, Nilakumar and Bungo have combined well even though they do not play together very often. Most of the Manipur players play for various clubs across the country and when it came to playing for the state, they lack cohesion and understanding.

Kerala will try to take advantage of this factor. Manipur had however the advantage of facing relatively weaker teams in their quarter' final matches in comparison to Kerala. They beat Orissa by four goals to one in their first quarter-final match and then drew with a good Tamil Nadu side two-all but went to the last four on better goal average. Kerala, on the other hand, had a tough run up to the finals, having to face former champions Bengal in their first quarter-final encounter which they won 3-2. The unlikely opposition they faced was from a spirited Assam side, which enjoyed a lead for 70 minutes before the reigning champions gathered momentum. The semi-final clash was also a tough one for Kerala as they barely managed to beat services 3-2 after the game was leveled two-all in the 70th minute.

Although Kerala coach Peethambaran said the crowd would not be a factor, the incidents during Saturday's match when the local spectators forced abandonment of the game after the referee awarded a controversial 58th minute goal to Goa would be hard to forget. The situation became tense as crowd threw glass bottles and placards on to the ground forcing the organizers to enforce strict security with more than 4000 security men being deployed for yesterday's match and similar security bandobast could be expected in the final match.