MANJERI, Jan 15: Tiddim Road Athletic Union (TRAU) handed defending champions Gokulam Kerala their first home defeat with a 2-1 win here on Sunday.
Having been on the receiving end for most of the first half and the first few minutes of second, TRAU took hold of the match in the 57th minute with defender Manash Protim Gogoi’s goal.
Gokulam were enjoying more of ball possession and TRAU got a corner against the run of play. Komron Tursunov floated the ball in from the left and the Gokulam defence did not know when Gogoi sneaked in at the far post to head the ball in.
Gokulam did create some chances but as in the first half, those were either off target or not good enough to beat TRAU goalkeeper Bishorjit Singh.
On the contrary, The Red Pythons almost doubled the lead in the 76th minute. After a string of passes in the midfield among TRAU players, Salam Johnson Singh’s brilliant through ball from the right found Tursunov in the Gokulam box with only custodian James Kithan to beat, but Tursunov went for the far post and missed it narrowly.
However, Johnson did the job himself a couple of minutes later. He owned the right wing with another brilliant run into the penalty area and beat Kithan with a powerful right-footer to make it 2-0.
TRAU left-back Buanthanglun Samte, who had an otherwise good day, made a terrible defensive error four minutes from time. He was too late to decide on a back pass to Bishorjit, with Kaka’s replacement Shijin breathing down his neck.
He got between Samte and Bishorjit, who was also late to reach out for the ball. It eventually fell for Thahir Zaman, who stood in front of an unmanned goal and halved the deficit. (PTI)
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