Kerala football news

Wayna Cochin Premier League: It’s Golden Threads

Jinesh Thomas, the Kerala Santosh Trophy goalkeeper, turned out to be the hero in the tie-breaker as Golden Threads FC lifted the Wayna Cochin Premier League football title at the Maharaja’s Stadium here on Thursday evening.

Despite being reduced to 10 men in the last 12 minutes, last year’s runner-up Golden Threads forced defending champion Central Excise to a 1-1 draw in the regulation period and then shut out it rival 3-0 in the tiebreaker.

“This is our first major title,” said S.S. Naushad, the Golden Threads’ owner.

Action-packed:

M.K. Sunil gave Central Excise the lead in the 28th minute of the action-packed first half but Golden Threads came back strongly and Sanu scored the equaliser seconds before the break.

There were a few misses too. Sanjay Vennara took off on a promising solo run and a little later he foxed the advancing Excise goalkeeper with a little jump. But he shot wide with an empty goal in front of him.

Excise’s Bijesh Ben also messed up a good chance when he offered a weak tap to goalkeeper Jinesh who was within hand-shaking distance.

Frayed tempers:

With the teams desperate for the match-winner, a few players lost their cool. And in one such incident, Golden Threads’ forward Sanu punched a rival player and received the marching orders in the 78t {+h} minute. Excise’s Binoy also received a yellow during the incident.

It was all Golden Threads in the tie-breaker. While Sanjay Vennara, Shameer and Abhijith were on target, Jibin Joseph, J. Jestin and Bijesh Ben’s shots were all pushed away by Jinesh.

The Viva Kerala Chairman, P. Bhaskaran, and Zakir Hussain, the President of the Ernakulam District Sports Council, gave away the prizes.

Source: The Hindu