Madhya Pradesh scored a 4-0 victory over Pondicherry in their cluster III match of the 63rd Santosh Trophy Tournament at Tiruchirappalli, on Thursday.
This was Pondicherry’s second consecutive defeat in the tournament as they had lost to Jammu and Kashmir while Madhya Pradesh had drawn their previous game against Mizoram in their opening match.
Madhya Pradesh started the game on an attacking note and never allowed their opponent Pondicherry to take control of the game. The victors got some chances to score early on but they failed to convert the chances that came their way. Madhya Pradesh played a very composed game and played with long and short passes.
In the 25th minute Madhya Pradesh were awarded with a penalty and Krishna Kumar Singh utilized the opportunity well to give his team a 1-0 lead.
After the lead there were hardly any moves made and both the teams failed to have a clear shot at the goal and as a result the match entered into the lemon break with Madhya Pradesh having a 1-0 lead.
The match entered into the second half with Madhya Pradesh completely dominating the game. In the 59th minute Santosh Rajak found the back of the net to give his team a 2-0 lead. Four minutes later Sony Rajak extended the lead as he was left unmarked and his shot at the far post left Pondicherry custodian stranded beneath the bar.
With a four nil lead Madhya Pradesh knew that the victory was theirs and in the 88th minute Bhagwan Das added his name to the scoring sheet to extend the lead to 4-0 and help his team pocket three points.
Source: the-aiff.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 28 May 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.