JOIN USLalkamal Bho-wmick scored a late winner for Prayag United against a fighting Pailan Arrows in a sixth round match of the I-League at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Sunday. The 2-1 victory also propelled Prayag to the second spot in the league standings.
C K Vineeth found an early break for Prayag in the 12th minute before Arrows made a late charge to find the equaliser off Narayan Das in the 85th minute. Bhowmick netted the winner two minutes from time to help Prayag net full points and take their to 13 points from six outings.
With Dempo SC also on 13 points, Prayag edged past the defending champions on the basis of a better goal difference (+14 compared to +8 of Dempo).
Prayag made the right start and took an early lead but action thereafter drifted to a level of mediocrity. The goal came off a long floater from midfield, which was snapped up on top of the Arrows’ box by Costa Rican Carlos Hernandes. The latter managed to push the ball ahead for Vineeth to finish with a nice half-volley.
The action heated up towards the end when Arrows, after missing a couple of set-piece chances, found themselves third-time lucky. As substitute Tirthankar Sarkar curled the ball into the Prayag box from the corner, wing-back Narayan Das flew in to nod the ball past Subrata Paul in the Prayag goal.
However, before Arrows could end their celebration of scoring the equaliser, Bhowmick restored the lead for Prayag.
The centre-half calmly slotted the ball past an off-positioned Soram Poirei in the Arrows’ goal to bring joy back in the Prayag ranks.
Sporting edge United
Sporting Clube de Goa beat United Sikkim 2-1 in another tie. Ogba Kalu (10th) and Seiya Sugishita (15) netted for Sporting, while Sandesh Jhingan pulled one back for United (45th).