Sumesh in dreamland

Coming on as a substitute in the first half of the first match of his maiden Santosh Trophy National Football Championship, N Sumesh scored his and Kerala’s first goal of the 2010 tournament in his first touch of the ball.

It has been a dream run for this relatively unknown midfielder from Thrissur who was playing for the Southern Samiti Football Club in Kolkata before being loaned to the Kerala-based Josco FC earlier this season.

“I still can‘t believe my luck,” Sumesh told FootballKerala.com. The goal came when MP Sakeer tried to play a through ball ahead of the Uttarakhand defense from the midfield. The opposition keeper had rushed to clear the loose ball, but only managed to kick the ball as far as Sumesh’s legs.

“I was at the right place at the right moment. After I received the ball on my feet, I just had to keep my composure and hit the ball accurately into the goal,” the lad was full of joy over the phone.

Image not recovered: Sumesh of Kerala and Manoj Adikhari in actionSumesh was in the substitute’s bench when the match started. But coach MM Jacob was forced to make a change in the 40th minute, as Renil CJ found it difficult to cope up with the conditions at Kolkata. And 3 minutes after his introduction, Sumesh had given Kerala the much needed lead before the half time whistle.

After joining Josco, who aim big for the coming years, the 23 year old has played in the GV Raja Tournament and the Manorama Gold Cup. He scored a goal in both the tournaments; one against the KSEB and the other against the Akbar Travels Football Team.

“We have good facilities at Josco FC that helps in the growth of each players at the club. Apart from that, Chathuni Sir‘s training methods are excellent and it has helped me a lot.”

“Kerala played very well with a lot of chances created, but unfortunately, we could not connect many of these chances. If we were better in finishing, we could have won wit ha margin like Assam‘s today (8-0 against Himachal Pradesh),” Sumesh commented on his team’s performance against the Uttarakhand.

Sumesh also shared his experience of playing in the artificial turf at the Salt Lake Stadium. “This was the first time many of our players including me has seen an artificial turf, let alone play on it! I found it really good to play on and it was much easier to control and play the ball compared to the natural grass.”

With a 3-1 win over Uttarakhand, Kerala haves set the tune for the 2010 campaign. Other than Sumesh, Churchill Brothers’ MP Sakeer and Chandni FC’s Javed OK found the back of the net for Kerala. Sakeer had his 25 yard get past the goalkeeper while Javed used his head to deviate a cross ball into the goal.

Adwaidh Rajan writes for Footballkerala.com

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 22 July 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.