JOIN USKSP labour to victory
The Policemen, who had won both their previous matches, looked completely out of sorts and will be relieved to have garnered maximum points, thanks to a 77th-minute header from Alex Praveen. Dharmaraj, who are one of the promoted teams, fell to their third loss in a row.
Karthik, who scored an impressive brace in KSP’s last match against ISRO, got the first chance of the game. Having been played through by midfielder Sampath Kumar down the middle, the forward was charged down by goalkeeper Hariharan after hesitating when team-mate Kiran Kumar was wide open on his left.
The second chance came off a corner, Karthik heading the ball well over the crossbar from eight yards out. KSP’s final and best chance of the half came to captain Pradeep BV, who found himself all alone in the penalty area. The Karnataka Santosh Trophy captain, though, completely mishit Kiran’s cross with just the goalkeeper to beat.
The second half was not much better, with Dharmaraja hardly threatening and KSP finding it hard to create any clear-cut opportunity.
The goal came out of the blue. Sampath found fullback Sameer Ahmed tearing down the right, who fed a nice cross into the back post for Praveen to head it in. Dharmaraj tried their hardest to equalise, but were found wanting in the final third, handing KSP their third straight victory.
In the ‘A’ Division, LRDE and ADE played out a 2-2 draw, all four goals coming in the first half. ADE scored through Praveen Kumar (3rd) and Santhosh in the 11th, with George (34th) and Prachu (41st) ensuring a share of the spoils for LRDE. George was later shown a straight red card after clashing with Rajesh, who was also sent off, in the 60th minute.