KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 22

Nepal APF Football Club and Nepal Police Club played a 1-1 draw in the departmental derby in the Qatar Airways Martyrs Memorial A Division League here at the Dasharath Stadium today.

NPC took the lead in the first minute through Suman Lama, while Pradeep Lama replied for APF. Both the teams remained unmoved in the table with APF maintaining their eighth position with 13 points and NPC remaining at the 11th with 12 points.

NPC went ahead only after 23 seconds when Suman Lama slotted home from the edge of the box following a long pass from Kapil Dhakal. Lama capitalised on miscommunication between APF defender Adama Doumbia and goalkeeper Yuya Kuriyama, who had come forward to save the ball, and slotted into an empty nets. Pradeep Lama levelled the scores in the 41st minute when he met the ball half-cleared by Sajan Rai at the edge of the box and slammed home.

In another match, Tribhuvan Army Football Club came from a goal down to defeat Sankata Club 3-1 to move to second place.

TAFC accumulated 22 points following their fifth victory, while Sankata remained at the seventh with 15 points with last round matches remaining.

Santosh Tamang, George Prince Karki and Tek Bahadur Budhathoki scored one goal each for the Army after Uttam Rai had put Sankata ahead. Rai opened the scoring in the 15th minute when he headed home from the box following a corner from Subash Gurung. TAFC goalkeeper Bishwas Chaudhary made a desperate attempt but he was not able to stop the ball from going into the goal despite getting his hands to it, Santosh Tamang levelled the scores at the stroke of an hour after he collected a pass from George Prince Karki at the edge of the box and slammed home leaving Sankata goalkeeper Rohit Karki stranded. George Prince Karki put his side ahead in the 74th minute with a spectacular goal after Santosh Tamang's through pass beat the offside trap and the striker rounded up goalkeeper Rohit Karki before burying the ball into the goal.

TAFC sealed the victory four minutes before the end when Tek Bahadur Budhathoki found the back of the nets in rebound after Santosh Tamang's attempt deflected towards the substitute midfielder. Budhathoki had replaced Gautam Shrestha in the 33rd minute.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 23, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.