MEG inch closer to title

Madras Engineer Group (MEG) on Thursday inched closer to the BDFA Super Division League title with a 3-1 win over Army Service Corps (ASC) in an ill-tempered affair that featured six send-offs.

MEG began the day four points behind leaders Students Union and a point below rival ASC (17), who needed to win by a margin of two goals to wear the crown. With their win over ASC now, MEG have jumped to second place (19 points) and stand favourites to emerge champions. The Sappers take on AGORC on Saturday where a draw would be enough for them to secure the title.

However, if MEG lose, then Students with 20 points would be crowned champions.

In front of a boisterous crowd anticipating a thrilling encounter between the two Army outfits, ASC opened the scoring in the 21st minute when winger Deepak slotted the ball past MEG goalkeeper Sharat Narayan off an assist from forward Jotin Singh.

MEG responded in brilliant fashion though and equalised in the 36th minute when Liton’s diving header off a cross from Dhanji Singh ended up in the back of the ASC net.

After the change of ends, ASC substitute Neeraj missed the chance of the game when he blasted his shot over the bar after midfielder A Ramesh had sent him through with only Narayan to beat.

The Sappers made sure ASC paid dearly for that miss as they went ahead when Dipen headed the ball into the net off a delightful cross from Sajesh in the 67th minute.

Midfielder Chistopher then added to ASC’s woes in the 76th minute after calmly putting the ball into the bottom right corner of the net from a penalty. The spot kick was awarded after ASC’s Boinao Singh was found guilty of handling the ball inside the box.

Independents win title
Earlier, Bangalore Independents clinched the ‘A’ Division title after beating Postal Department 4-1.

Independents (22 points) and Jawahar Union (2nd, 18 points) will ply their trade in Super Division next season.

For Independents, Udith got a brace (12th, 77th minutes) while Sudesh (70th) and Milton (71) scored a goal each. Rickey (58th) netted the only goal for Postal.
DH News Service