JYC, Friends Club draw level; Sankata triumph

Kathmandu, December 31:

Sankata Club defeated Bouddha Football Club 3-0 and Jawalakhel Youth Club and Friends’ Club played a 1-1 draw in the Martyrs’ Memorial San Miguel ‘A’ Division League Football Tournament here at Dasharath Stadium today.

With the win, Sankata moved one spot up to sixth with 20 points, while the three others remained unmoved. Bouddha, who entered the ‘A’ Division as runners-up in the ‘B’ Division League behind Machhindra FC, is the only winless club in the 15-team tournament.

Manang Marsyangdi Club lead the standing with 32 points, one more than defending champions Nabil Three Star Club and two more than last year’s runner-up Mahendra Police Club. The top three teams have two matches in the first leg. Tribhuvan Army Club is at fourth with 28 points.

At the bottom, Mahabir Club have nine points, four more than Boys’ Union Club and Bouddha have three points.

In Saturday’s first match at Dasharath Stadium, Sankata took lead through Nilendra Dewan in the 30th minute when Bouddha goalkeeper Subash Neupane got hands to Dewan’s powerful shot, but failed to stop the ball.

Raj Kumar KC doubled the lead in the 60th minute. Raj Kumar collected the ball released by Rojit KC just inside the penalty and fired home beating Bouddha custodian Neupane. Rojit sealed the victory in the 86th minute following a pass from his skipper Kailash Dangol.

In the other match between two Lalitpur neighbours, Friends’ Club were on verge of registering their fourth victory in the 13th match, but Doran Serchan ruined their party with an injury-time equaliser.

Chandra Tamang put Friends’ Club ahead in the 43rd minute when he struck a powerful right-footed shot from 10 yards following Sishir Adhikari’s pass. Serchan, who was unmarked in the D-Box found the ball and fired a left-foot shot into the net in the second of the three-minute injury time to share points.

Jawalakhel missed an equalising opportunity in the 58th minute when Susan Bhandari ended up hitting the cross bar in penalty, which the JYC earned after Ramesh Byanjankar brought down Doran inside the area.

JYC coach Meghraj KC was satisfied with the players’ performance. “Result can go to anyone’s favour, but the boys played well today,” he said. Friends’ coach Siddhi Byanjankar was furious at his players for not playing seriously. “I was cautioning them about the time, but they were careless and conceded the goal in the last minute,” he said.

Today’s matches

• Boys’ Union vs Machhindra FC @ 12:30pm

• Nabil Three Star Club vs NRT @ 2:30pm