In the opening match of cluster III of the 63rd National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy, played at the St Joseph College Ground, Tiruchirappalli, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh played a 1-1 draw.
Both the teams played an attacking game but Madhya Pradesh pulled one back in the 87th minute to split points with J&K. It was Madhya Pradesh that started on an attacking note and had better ball possession in the first half. They could have found the back of the net thrice in the first half itself but they failed to capitalize on the chances that came their way.
But it was last year quarterfinalists who drew the first blood as they found the back of the net in the 42nd minute through Taufeeq. As the match entered into the lemon break with J&K leading by a solitary goal the start of the second half also had J&K keeping the momentum going and attacking at the opponents den.
With 15 minutes left for the final whistle, Madhya Pradesh team got their acts together and some good moves had Athoiba Maitai scoring the equalizer in the 87th minute to spoil the dream of the J&K to have winning start.
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Source: the-aiff.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Sunday 24 May 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.