Manipur swamps HP

By M.R. Praveen Chandran

CHALAKUDY, MARCH 27. Manipur, produced a lively pace in the last quarter, as it hammered a clueless Himachal Pradesh 8-0 in a Cluster II encounter of the 56th National football championship, for the Santosh Trophy, at the Carmel stadium here on Monday.

Playing with the trademark flourish associated with teams from the North East, Manipur quickly grabbed the initiative from its ponderous rival, which was forced to be defensive from the start.

Himachal managed to frustrate Manipur with its defensive tactics initially. And often the nippy Manipur forwards found it difficult to breach the defensive wall set by their rivals. Manipur, in the early part of the match, was also guilty of holding on to the ball for too long, which allowed the Himachal defence to regroup inside the penalty box.

Resorting to long clearances, the Himachal players also were successful in keeping the ball out of harm's way during this phase and at the same time used the long ball to launch counter- attacks. But in the 28th minute, Manipur got the lead it deserved when Mangelm Jao gave the finishing touches to a fine pass from Bantu Golemi.

Golemi was also the one who started the move that resulted in the second Manipur goal, 12 minutes later. Beating the off-side trap, Golemi advanced into the penalty area forcing goalkeeper Govind Thapa to come out of his guard. Thapa managed to prevent Golemi from scoring but the loose ball was picked up by Stephen Hmar whose rasping shot hit the upright and bounced into play before C.H. Shyam Chand rushed in and headed in the rebound.

The ultra defensive tactics of Himachal Pradesh managed to keep the scoreline intact, though the Manipur forwards were inconsistent with their work inside the box. The sporadic Himachal counter-attacks did not have much bite as its strikers, Hitender Thakur and Pradeep Mankotia, failed to combine properly.

The introduction of P. Dharam and I. Nilakumar into the Manipur ranks gave more teeth to its attack. Guneshwor scored the third Manipur goal in the 75th minute and Golemi capping a fine day, the fourth, blasting in a 22-yarder in the 79th minute. And then, substitute Dharam's darting run from the right flank culminated in the fifth goal as his cross was tapped in by Stephen Hmar.

A minute later, Mangelm Jao converted a spot-kick, which was awarded when Stephen Hmar was brought down by Himachal defender Pramod Passy. Nilakumar headed in a Stephen Hmar floater from the right to score the seventh goal in the 86th minute, while Manglem Jao rounded off the tally in the dying second of the match, scoring his third goal of the day.

Manipur will take on Bihar on Tuesday to decide the pre- quarterfinalist from Cluster II.

Fixtures revised

Meanwhile, the organising committee today released the revised fixtures of the tournament, following the withdrawal of Andaman & Nicobar and Nicobar from Clusters V and VI respectively.

The revised fixtures: March 28: Manipur v Bihar (Cl.II); March 29: Chandigarh v Orissa (Cl.III); March 30: Pre-quartefinals, winner of Cluster I v winner of Cluster II; March 31: Delhi v Orissa (Cl. VII); April 1: Assam v Uttar Pradesh (Cl. V); April 2: Tripura v Pondicherry (Cl.IV); Delhi v Chandigarh (Cl.VII); April 3: Assam v Madhya Pradesh (Cl.V); Punjab v Tripura (Cl.IV); April 4: Punjab v Pondicherry (Cl.IV); April 5: Uttar Pradesh v Madhya Pradesh (Cl.V); Karnataka v Jammu & Kashmir (Cl.VI); April 6: Maharashtra v Haryana (Cl.VIII); Pre- quarterfinals, winner of Cluster III v winner of Cluster IV: April 7: Pre-quarterfinals, winner of Cluster V v winner of Cluster VI; Apirl 8: Pre- quarterfinals, winner of Cluster VII v winner of Cluster VIII.

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