Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium: Ugandan striker Fazila Ikwaput played havoc as Gokulam Kerala registered their fourth consecutive win routing Sethu FC 4-1 in the concluding match of the Round Six at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday. The winners led 2-1 at half time.
Fazila’s four-goal blitz was too much to handle for the home team, who could do little to curb the brilliance of the Ugandan, who took her tally of goals to 14 from six matches in the current campaign. This was her third hat-trick of the season.
The result maintained Gokulam’s unbeaten record in the season, and took them to 14 points, one behind current leaders East Bengal. Sethu FC remained on 10 points from six matches.
In a blistering opening period of play Gokulam Kerala hit Sethu FC with a double whammy, ten minutes apart. In the first instance, in the 10th minute a long ball from Asem Roja Devi saw Fazila Ikwaput beat Khambi Chanu to the ball and finish to give the visitors the lead.
The second arrived in similar fashion 10 minutes later, this time Roja’s through ball splitting through the Sethu defence for Fazila to run through and slide a side footed finish in the far corner. Gokulam were cruising.
Sethu have built their reputation as a team that is hard to put away and so it proved. Five minutes after that second goal, they halved the deficit, Phanjoubam Nirmala Devi curling the ball into goal straight from a corner to score. Goalkeeper Payal Basude’s blushes could perhaps be reduced by the fact that the ball also beat the defender at the far post and bounced in off the woodwork.
Sethu seemed to have equalised in first half injury time, and were wheeling off to celebrate before spotting the flag up for offside.
The hosts carried their momentum into the second half and kept knocking at the door, without ever actually managing to get the elusive equaliser. They forced saves off Basude and in one clear opportunity, Hadijah Nandago, having been played through one on one, hit a weak shot straight at the goalkeeper.
Gokulam duly capitalised on the misses, Fazila completing her third hat trick of the season on the hour mark, a long ball again the source of Sethu’s doom. Exploiting the high line, Fazila brough the ball under control, dinked it over the onrushing goalkeeper, before smashing it into the net from a mere two yards out.
Sethu kept coming though and in the 79th minute, Nandago’s volley forced another sharp save from Basude. From the ensuing corner, Moussa Zouwairatou’s header was cleared off the line to keep Gokulam’s lead intact.
Gokulam duly capitalised on the misses, Fazila completing her third hat trick of the season on the hour mark, a long ball again the source of Sethu’s doom. Exploiting the high line, Fazila brough the ball under control, dinked it over the onrushing goalkeeper, before smashing it into the net from a mere two yards out.
Article Source: IANS
