MEG, Bangalore, rode on Ngurneilal Hamr’s hat-trick to crush Thiruvananthapuram DFA XI 4-1 and entered the quarterfinals of the G.V. Raja all-India football tournament at the University stadium here on Friday.
Ngurneilal scored his goals in the 30th, 35th and 50th minutes after Ramu opened scoring for the Bangalore side in the 27th minute. Ben Christian scored the consolation goal for Thiruvananthapuram DFA in the 54th minute. The Bangalore side, despite its dominance, failed to translate territorial advantage to goals. It needed a fortuitous penalty for MEG to break the deadlock and came in the 27th minute.
Ajiraj had made his way into the Thiruvananthapuram penalty box and was in no position to score but he was needlessly tripped from behind by Jose. The resultant penalty was coolly slotted in by Ramu.
Twin strike MEG struck twice in space of five minutes to take the wind out of Thiruvananthapuram’s sails. Lokeshwar Singh released Suraj Singh on the left flank with a through pass and the midfielder bore his way into the box and his cut back was slotted in by Ngurneilal in the 30th minutes.
Five minutes later Ngurneilal broke the off-side trap to score his team’s third goal. The start of second half witnessed two good moves from the Thiruvananthapuram side but Ben Christian failed to convert both of them.
Ngurneilal completed his hat-trick in the 50th minute as Bangalore side went 4-0 ahead. A fine move initiated by Shiju from the middle resulted in the Thiruvananthapuram goal. Receiving the ball, Ben Christian made amends for his earlier misses.
Source: The Hindu
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Saturday 30 January 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.