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MPC derail Railways
BIRATNAGAR, JAN 18 - Ace striker Hari Khadka guided defending champions Mahendra Police Club (MPC) to 2-1 victory over Kolkata’s Eastern Railways in the final of the Mahendra Gold Cup football tournament here at Shahid Maidan today.
Khadka struck a rare header and assisted Dev Narayan Chaudhary for another to script MPC’s comeback after Railways surprisingly took lead through Ram Mallik in the 20th minute of the match.
Archis Man Biswas of Railways cleverly played the ball to Mallik taking MPC defenders by surprise when Dipendra Poudel handled the ball just outside the MPC penalty area. Mallik controlled the ball and fired the shot on the right side of the goal post beating goalie Mani Chamling to take 1-0 lead against the run of play.
"They surprised us by playing the ball quickly and put us on back foot," MPC skipper Anil Adhikari told The Kathmandu Post. "But we dominated the match and deservedly won it." Jubilant Adhikari also praised Khadka for his brilliant performance adding that ‘I have never seen Hari scoring through such a header.’After taking surprise lead, Railways tried to defend the lead employing only Mallik in front. Railways’ cause was hampered by expulsion of their defender Abhijit Mondal in the 28th minute. Mondal unnecessarily misbehaved with referee Amar Bahadur Pokhrel and collected two yellow cards simultaneously.
MPC showed more urgency in the second half and thoroughly dominated it. Khadka brilliantly dodged Railways defenders in the box and struck a powerful shot that hit the right bar in the 56th minute. He again made a run in the left flank and supplied a well measured cross to Chaudhary who leapt high to hit the top right corner of the net in the 71st minute. After the goal, MPC made several inroads in the opponents’ territory.
Khadka put MPC in lead through a diving header in 78th minute on Kishore Subba’s cross from left. Khadka made a low lunge to guide it to the left corner of the goal post for his seventh goal of the tournament.
Khadka was declared man-of-the match and also awarded Rs 5,000 for being the highest scorer in the tournament. "I’ve regained my confidence and am playing as good as I have ever played," elated Khadka told afterwards.
Railways manager Ajit Biswas looked satisfied with the result. "We were playing a physically and technically stronger team and being one man down in the first half, we should have been extremely lucky for other result," he said.
ANFA Academy U-17 were awarded for fair play while Dev Narayan Choudhary received Rs 5,000 for being player of the tournament. The winners and the runners-up pursed Rs 50,000 and Rs 25,000 respectively. ANFA president Ganesh Thapa gave away the trophy to the victorious team.Posted on: 2004-01-19 03:50
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