Day of big wins in National football

Manipur, Assam and Karnataka on Monday posted huge victories to join Services in the quarter-final league of the National football championship, for the Santosh trophy, in Bombay.

Assam and Manipur needed just a draw each but went ahead with a goal spree, beating Pondicherry 4-0 and Haryana 3-0 respectively, at the Cooperage, while Karnataka showed no mercy while thrashing Daman and Diu 10-0 at the University stadium.

Manipur's Neela Kumar starred in the forward line providing an opening to Manglem Jao to score the first goal in the 14th minute and four minutes later played one-two very effectively which concluded with a goal from Tikken Singh.

Stephen Amar, in the 83rd minute, smoothly controlled a pass onto his body and then rolled it on his right to volley home.

Neela continued to torment the Haryana defense forcing Ravi Chauhan to hold him in the box. The resultant spot-kick was shot straight to goallie Sunil Tanwar by Jao. Chauhan committed a second foul and had the dubious distinction of being the first player in the tournament to receive a red card.

Assam went ahead through Taiakum Ao, who was well fed by youngster Birjab Moshhary. Assam played at will and gave no no serious thought of defending. But for the incompetent Pondicherry forwards, who thrice missed open goals, the story would have been different.

Pondicherry slipped further in the 35th minute with Sandipan Chakraworthy's header, followed by rebound conversion from Pabita Langsung in the 76th minute. Kamakhya Basumatary completed the rout in the last minute of the match.

Karnataka's S Sunil and Gopi scored a hat-trick each in the 10- victory.

Now Assam, Karnataka, Services and Manipur will go into groups headed by Kerala, Bengal, Maharashtra and Goa respectively.

On Sunday, Afroz Ahmed scored a hat-trick as Uttar Paradesh beat Tripura 5-2 in Cluster 4.

Manmeet Singh got the other two goals for UP while Kiran Chetri score both goals for Tripura.

In Cluster 3, Asif Jamil scored a brace as Railways routed Andhra Prades 4-0. Partho Mitra and Manjinder Singh accounted for the other goals.

In Cluster 8, Gujarat surprised Bihar by the odd goal in three. Rajiv Karir and Rajesh advi scored for the winners while Naveen Kumar reduced the margin for Bhiar.

In Cluster 7, Orissa and Chandigarh drew 1-1. Saroj Kant Patnaik scored for Orissa while Gurminder Singh got Chandigarh's goal.