Josco FC sailed past AFC Pathanamthitta with a 3 goal margin in the second match of 34th Kerala Stae Club Football Championship for Jos Alukka & Sons Jewellers Trophy.
The Jewellers took field in an all-orange outfield and started on 4-2-2 with striker Praveen Kumar playing behind Stefen Lijo. AFC on the other side sporting Red was playing more of a 4-3-3.
Josco was on the prowl from the start. Most of the attacking moves came through the left side. In the 19th minute, Sumesh on the left wing putting a good ball into the box saw few players going for the header, but the ball fell at the far post for Satheesh TC who made no mistakes in planting the ball into the net.
A few minutes later, a similar move resulted in another goal and the same players were involved. Satheesh with a brace was having a great day finishing almost every chance that fell to him.
25 minutes into the game, trailing 2-0 AFC was not totally beaten, they made few runs up front and Jijo Mathews effort just missed the post.
The next ten minutes of the game was the most entertaining with both teams creating enough chances. A couple of minutes later Josco strikers were guilty of missing two easy chances. First Praveen missed the left of post by few inches followed by Stephen shooting over the bar. Playing some end to end football, AFC also made few shots, Jijoy again in the guilty party.
In the 31st minute, Praveen send a through ball into the left side, Sumesh was quick on to it, but unlike the previous moves this was not to the width but into the box. He was quick to trap the ball and shoot to make it 3-0!
A couple of minutes later another Josco move and Satheesh almost completed his hat-trick but the assistant referee ruled out the goal as he was caught offside.
AFC toiled till the end of first half for their opening goal but it never came. A superb performance by the the Josco wingers tore apart AFC to end the first half at 3-0.
AFC started second half better trying to keep possession of the ball more. They dropped Sanoj back to left midfield going 4-4-2. But Josco were reluctant to play for the time. They were pushing ahead and took control of the game in a few minutes.
At the hour mark, AFC left back Shafeek was dispossessed and this gave Sumesh add another one to his tally. He was one-on-one but the advancing keeper Aneesh made a splendid effort to keep the score board the same. Josco kept piling on the pressure and Sumesh struck the woodwork the very next minute. After contributing to the match with some commendable performance Sumesh was called back to the bench at 66th minute. With the replacement Shareefkhan coming to the middle, the goal scorer Satheesh was promoted from the wing to the frontline.
The game after 60 minutes was dominated by Josco played out in the rival half. But the score remained unchanged till the final whistle. Satheesh was adjudged Man of the Match by the panel consisting of ex-Kerala Coach Peethambaran
The win makes Josco First team to enter into Quarter finals where they will play KSEB who trounced SASC Waynad 8-0.
Full Time Score Josco 3 - 0 AFC Pathanamthitta
GOAL SCORERS
JOSCO
Satheesh TC 19',21'
Sumesh 37'
Teams
Josco Titus Thomas (GK), Sajin, Shineraj, Nafeel, Tarzan Thomas, Sumesh, Bijo Paul, Vineeth Antony, Satheesh TC, Stephen Lijo, Praveen Kumar
Coach: TK Chatunny; Asst. Coach: Purushottaman
AFC Aneesh KM (GK), Ajesh PV, Gibin Cheriyan, Noufal PP, Shafeek Shams, Jijo Mathew, Sijad K, Naushad MP, Bijumon Mohan, Sanooj MP, Ranjith M
Coach: Aby Varghese
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Tuesday 1 December 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.