12th Manipur State League NEROCA, SSU notch up hard fought wins
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 26 2017: NEROCA FC and SSU registered hard fought victories against thier respective rivals today to improve their standing in the ongoing 12th Manipur State League at Artificial Turf Ground, Khuman Lampak .

In the first match of the day, NEROCA and TRAU took to the fields knowing that their standing on the league table was not very healthy and both went in for a win from the first whistle .

12th Manipur State League NEROCA, SSU notch up hard fought wins

At the end of the 4th round today, NEROCA had 2 wins, one draw and one loss while TRAU too had the same record .

Both took to the field knowing that a win was imperative to be in the race for the League title .

Equally matched, the two teams kicked off wary of each other and relied on their skills and deft passing .

However the superior physical fitness of the players from NEROCA started having its say and the players took full advantage of it with some fast runs down either side of the flanks .

TRAU deftly defended and managed to neutralise all the moves and relied on quick counter attacks and could have scored if not for some poor finishing which did them in .

The complexion of the match changed in the 19th minute when Subash released a power packed pass from the right flank and Y Gopi who was lurking near the penalty area managed to pounce on the ball, deftly control it and let go a well placed shot that beat the custodian of TRAU hands down .

Up by one goal, NEROCA continued to find the gaps in the defence line of TRAU but the defenders of TRAU stood firm and foiled all the good moves initiated from the mid field and flanks .

After the lemon break neither side managed to find the mark and the match went into additional time .

In the 3rd minute of the 4 minutes added, Y Gopi was at it again when he received a well timed parallel pass from Johnson.

The young Gopi deftly controlled the ball, positioned himself well and unleashed a powerful shot to find the target.NEROCA wrapped up the match 2 goals to nil to improve on their standing on the league table .

In the second match of the day SSU eked out a narrow 1-0 win over DM Rao .

An otherwise well known club, SSU have had a poor outing in this year’s State League having notched up only two draws and two losses in their previous four rounds and come at the lower end of the league standing .

With today’s win, its position has improved but it will need more than superlative performances to pull them out from the lower end of the table
The all important goal for SSU came in the 31st minute when Rosicky Khaidem latched onto the ball and did well to deftly place it into the far end of the net past the custodian of DM Rao .

The goal came off a good throw from Md Abdul Salam and a defender of DM Rao weakly tried to clear it but only managed to roll back the ball to Salam who then passed it to Rosicky Khaidem who had little trouble in converting it.