Punjab, Manipur pick up big wins in Santosh trophy
By IANSFriday, July 16, 2010
KOLKATA - There were goals galore on the second day of the 64th Santosh Trophy interstate national soccer competition as former champions Manipur pummeled Rajasthan 13-0 while Punjab spanked Pondicherry 7-0 in cluster matches Friday.
The other game saw Nagaland storm past Gujarat 4-0 to cap a day of one-sided results.
In cluster III, former title holders Punjab opened up a 2-0 margin at the breather, but played blitz soccer towards the later stages to eke out a big win before a sizeable crowd at the Khardah stadium.
Balwant Singh put the north Indian giants ahead in the 29th minute, while Ravinder Singh doubled the lead two minutes later.
Punjab went all out in the second session and Balwant scored his second goal in the 48th minute.
Pondicherry tried to make a comeback for some time carrying out a couple of attacks with neat passes into the opponent territory but failed to make any dent in the results.
Punjab struck three more within a span of five minutes as Balraj Singh (66th), Rohit Kumar (70th) and Praveen Kumar (71st) found the mark to make the score 6-0.
Randeep Singh completed Pondicherry’s misery by finding the target two minutes from the final whistle.
In another match of the same cluster, Nagaland and Gujarat played out a goalless first half before Nagaland stepped up gear post breather striking four goals.
Sakutemje found the net twice while Deilierio and Tiafumet scored one apiece at the Howrah stadium.
The cluster IV tie saw Manipur literally toy with the Rajasthan defence to open up a 8-0 lead at the halfway mark.
Bolstered by the presence of several players attached to various I-League sides, the nippy boys from the north-east state went on the offensive from the outset at the Barasat stadium.
R.Vashum (15, 18, 25, 44 & 64) led the scorer’s tally with five, followed by Subhas Singh (12, 38, 58 & 67) with four. Charan Rai netted in the eighth and 28th minute of the opening session while Bisheshwor Singh (22) and Naila Kumar Singh (86) chipped in with one goal each.
