By Minerva Academy FC Media
Chandigarh: Minerva Academy Football Club continue their winning run in the 2nd Division I-League as they thrashed PIFA Sports 3-0 at the Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana on Friday.
The win helped Minerva Academy FC maintained their cent percent record as they now sit comfortably at the top of the table with 12 points. Second placed Lonestar Kashmir FC have amassed 5 points from 4 matches.
Debutant Sehijpal Singh opened the scoring for the Home side in the 20 minute as Kamalpreet doubled the lead in the 37th minute. Dilliram then scored the 3rd goal in the 86th minute to kill the match.
Hit with injuries and suspensions, coach Surinder Singh had to made eight changes to the starting XI with four of them making their debut. The new-look team took little time to settle down but once the match progressed, the Minervans were back to their own self.
The tiki-taka began and soon the Minervans were all over, creating the first real chance when Arshdeep ran down the flank and crossed it over to Manvir, whose powerkick kissed the overhead bar.
In the 20th minute, the much needed goal came when Sehijpal pounded over a deflection to unleashed a scorcher which rattled the back of the PIFA net, giving no chance to the Goal Keeper James Swami to react.
Minervans kept the pressure on and created couple of more chances but failed to convert them. In the 37th minute, Kamalpreet doubled the lead after he latched on to a mis-pass in the goal mouth which he just had to tap in.
The match went into the break with the Pride of Punjab staring at another 3 pointers.
The 2nd half began in a similar fashion with the Minervans completely dominating the game. PIFA came up with few counter attacks but were not threatening enough to trouble the Minerva defence.
The introduction of Dilliram and Krishna Pandit brought in more pace to the side as they unleashed flurry of attacks. Dilliram was in the thick of things on more than three occasion. He took couple of shots from outside the box but both lacked power as the goalkeeper managed to save them.
On the 3rd occasion, Krishna sent in a low cross from the left for Dilliram, which the Sikkimish kicked with a slide but it just missed the far post by inches. But in the 87th minute, Dilliram made amends of all his previous misses, when he rose up to head in an inch-perfect cross from Prabhjot to make it 3-0 to ensure another 3 points for the Minervans.
Minerva Academy FC will now travel to Srinagar next week to face Lonestar Kashmir FC on the 20th of December.
