Draws mark the day at 13th Manipur State League
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 01 2020: All the two matches of 13th Manipur State League staged today at Artificial Turf ground, Khuman Lampak ended in draws forcing the teams to share spoils.

The first match and the tournament's 43rd played between SSU, Singjamei and NEROCA FC, Sangakpham ended in a 2-2 draw as SSU rallied back in the second half.

Both teams worked hard to secure the win and better their positions in the league table but after the 2-2 draw, NEROCA FC continue to remain at second place with 13 points in 5 matches and SSU too remained at fourth place with 11 points off 6 matches.

SSU and NEROCA FC were seemingly on level terms from the beginning of the match but the latter team had the 2-1 edge till the first half before SSU fought back to salvage a point.

Shital drew first blood in the 16th minute to put SSU in the front-foot but S Ronald helped NEROCA FC with the equaliser in the 22nd minute before S Subash reversed the lead in the 37th minute with a brilliant finish.

After the restart, SSU pushed more men in search of the equaliser while NEROCA FC were closely observing their rivals' lapses to add further goals.

SSU however proved to be the luckier side as they managed to come on level terms at the stroke of the hour mark through M Ronald strike and latter efforts from both the ends did not materialise thereby forcing the two teams to split a point each.

Ch Roshan of NEROCA FC picked up a yellow card in this evenly matched game in the 62nd minute.

Meanwhile the second match of the day had a similar finish as UKB, Churachandpur made a fine comeback in the second half to draw 3-3 with AFC, Thoubal.

AFC enjoyed dominance in earlier proceedings to ensure a 2-0 lead in the first half but UKB struck twice lately to break AFC's hope of winning all three points for the first time.

Th Suraj broke the deadlock for AFC early in the 6th minute and Md Fayazuddin doubled the team's advantage 10 minutes latter.

And as, UKB who trounced AIM 5-0, struggled to find their composure, the first half ended 2-0 in AFC's favour.

UKB however had a fresh hope after the restart with Lalminlian scoring after 60 minutes.

M Oken made it 3-1 for AFC in the 65th minute but UKB seized more ground in the latter portion and the gap was close out when both Paolemsiam and John scored in the 81st minute to surprise everyone on the stand.

The scoreline remained unchanged despite the two sides making all out efforts to find the winner.

UKB after the result, continue to hold the 5th place with 11 points from 6 matches while AFC remain at 11th spot with 4 points from 7 matches.

NACO, Nambul Mapal will play DM RAO in the 45th match of the tournament on Monday while GSC will meet KLASA latter in the 46th match.

The first match starts at 11.45 pm while the second match will begin at 2 pm .

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