JOIN USA brace from Karthik (17th, 54th) and one apiece from Arun Kumar (8th) and Srinath (70th) gave the Policemen their second straight victory. ISRO scored through Thamodaran in the fourth minute and Suman Murthy (58th).
The match saw end-to-end action throughout, with the promoted ISRO matching the much favoured KSP. The opening goal came for the Spacemen via a brilliant free-kick from former HASC player Thamodaran. After KSP defender Vinod Kumar brought down Kaja Mohudeen just outside the penalty area, Thamodaran stepped up to curl a left-footer to the top left corner from 19 yards out. KSP, though, immediately answered back, albeit in suspicious circumstances. A corner from Arun beat the traffic in the near post and seemed to strike Suman on the body. The referee, C Leo, deemed it as handball and gave a penalty to KSP, which Arun duly finished.
It was 2-1 nine minutes later when the impressive Karthik lobbed the goalkpeeper nicely off a pass from Sameer Ahmed.
The game seemed to have been put to bed nine minutes into the second half when Karthik again scored off a nice cross from Srinath. KSP, thinking the match was over, seemed to take their foot off the pedal, giving ISRO the impetus to go forward. ISRO deservedly reduced the lead in the 58th minute off a corner. Diwakar Thapa swung in one from the right and Ashok Kumar climbed highest to head it goalwards. The ball richocheted off a couple of defenders and fell kindly to Suman to guide it in from nine yards.
That goal woke KSP up and they doubled their lead -- and ended the contest -- through Srinath’s tap-in off a Kiran Kumar cross from the right twenty minutes from fulltime.
Other result:
‘A’ Division: Aeronautical Development Establishment: 6 (Murugan 31st, 34th, 51st, Roy 42nd (OG), Praveen Kumar 55th, 71st) bt Royals: 0.