Job nicely accomplished: The Services staff celebrates after beating Goa in the final.
| Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR
YUPIA (ARUNACHAL): P.P. Shafeel scored with a spectacular pile-driver to assist Services beat a robust Goa by a solitary objective in the final to lift the Santosh Trophy for the seventh time in the historical past of the premier inter-state senior males’s soccer competitors.
Goa, the pre-final favorite, couldn’t stand up to expectations as Services latched on to Shafeel’s 67th-minute strike and efficiently preserved the lead until the finish.
The opening session at the Golden Jubilee Stadium ended goalless as the attackers failed to discover the desired contact at each ends. There was no dearth of motion although as either side adopted an open method. They produced some good raids that have been both neutralised in the field or went vast for need of precision.
The second session got here alive with extra concentrated efforts from Services, which began probing the Goa field with extra function. Goa goalkeeper Antonio Da Silva made an important save in the fiftieth minute to make up for the mistake of his defensive colleague Deeshank Kunkalikar, who miscued a clearance to let Services right-half Subham Rana have a crack.
Services saved urgent for the lead and located it in the 67th minute when midfielder Rahul Ramakrishnan arrange Saheel exterior the Goa field. The Services right-back answered with a strong grounder that went by way of Da Silva’s defences.
Goa went in the hunt for the equaliser and got here shut to discovering it on at the least three events. But Services’ defence caught to its activity and located the clearances at the proper second.
The finest probability got here in injury-time (90+3 minute) when Deeshank put in a pleasant cross for substitute Joshua D’Silva. The latter’s header beat the Services goalkeeper Abdul Kadir however Pradeep Kumar cleared from the line to save the day for Services.
The outcome: Services 1 (P.P. Shafeel 67) bt Goa 0.
