Malappuram knocks out Thiruvananthapuram

Riding on a hat trick from their star forward Sajith Khan, Malappuram defeated Thiruvananthapuram to book a place in the semi finals of the Kerala State Sub-junior Football Championship 2011 being held at Kannur. They overcame Thiruvananthapuram 3-1, while Ernakulam drubbed Pathanamthitta 8-0 to make it to the last four.

Sajith Khan was again the star for Malappuram as he backed his seven goal performance against Alappuzha with a hat trick against yesterday's opponents. India's under-14 player Bento Geo scored the only goal for Thiruvananthapuram against a resilient Malappuram team.

Ernakulam had it easy against Pathanamthitta with the help of hat tricks from Akshay Joshi and Abhijith. Mohammed Mazil and Sreerag also scored for Ernakulam to register a huge 8-0 win in the quarter final.

On Saturday, Thrissur will face defending champions Kozhikode in the first semi final, while Ernakulam and Malappuram go head-to-head in the second semi final match.

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Saturday 31 December 2011, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.