Punjab pip UP 4-0

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 12

Punjab trounced UP 4-0 and Uttarakhand beat Chandigarh 3-0 in the 69th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy (North Zone) held at Guru Gobind Singh Stadium, Jalandhar.

Punjab dominated the proceedings right from the start. In the sixth minute, Sajandeep Singh supplied a well-measured pass to Ajay Singh, who took a shot at UP den, but it was saved by Avinash K. Rao. Sajandeep Singh (11min) again supplied a well-measured pass to Ajay Singh, who made no mistake to net home the first goal for Punjab.

Gurtej Singh opened up an opportunity in the 38th min by chipping the ball to an unmarked Taranjit Singh but he was brought down by UP defender Sachin in the penalty area, resulting in a penalty in favour of Punjab. Ravinder Singh made no mistake (2-0).

After the lemon break, Ajay Singh scored the third goal (50th min). The fourth goal was scored by Taranjit Singh in the 63rd minute with the help of Sajandeep Singh.

In another encounter, Uttarakhand piped Chandigarh 3-0. Uttarakhand made the first move in the 50th minute when Shishir Shah supplied a well-measured pass to Ashok Singh, but the Chandigarh custodian came out with a superb save. Chandigarh, looking weaker today, came close to scoring two times (32nd and 43rd min), but the alert Uttarakhand custodian nullified all the moves.

After a barren first-half, Uttarakhand scored the first goal of the game in the 60th minute through striker Ashok Singh. Jigme Novbu scored a brace (69th and 80th min) to seal the scoreline (3-0) in favour of Uttarakhand.

In the dying minutes of the game Chandigarh came close to scoring two times (68th min and 87th min) but poor finishing upfront let them down.