Jotin sparkles in ASC win

Football Super Division League:Armymen slot nine goals to blank hapless ISRO

Jotin, who started in an unfamiliar forward position, scored in the 12th, 23rd, 55th and 78th minutes with A Saikh (37th, 39th), Thiyagarajan (33rd), Thirunavukarasu (66th) and Nitesh Bareily (71st) chipping in.

The match started like it ended, with ASC in full control and Jotin and his team-mates running rings around the ISRO backline. The first goal came Jotin’s way off a cross from Suresh Marei. The former ONGC midfielder found a wide open space in the penalty box and had the simple task of striking the ball in from eight yards out.

It was 2-0 ten minutes later when Jotin again found some space inside the penalty area to shoot it below goalkeeper Suresh Kumar’s body from a similar distance. ISRO hardly stood out in the match, and despite showing some good forward play in their previous games, they did not have a single meaningful shot at goal.

ASC were just getting warmed up though, Thiyagarajan slotting one past the charging goalkeeper after benefitting from a nice through ball from Raghu Kumar down the middle. Saikh got the first of his two goals soon after with Kumar again orchestrating the goal.

Saikh jumped onto the midfielder’s pass to round the goalkeeper and place it into an empty net.  The misery in the first half did not end for ISRO, as Saikh latched onto a pass from the right by Thirunavukarasu to strike it low past the custodian from 12 yards out.

With the match pretty much in their hands, ASC struck four more goals in the second half with Jotin completing his hat-trick ten minutes after resumption before getting his fourth from a penalty.

Other result: ‘A’ Division: Student Union: 2 (Phillip 40th, 50th) bt LRDE: 1 (Murthy 75th).