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Kathmandu,Friday May 19, 2000 Jestha 06, 2057.
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Three Star steal 3pts through late strike
NRT held to 1-1 draw by Kathmandu Club
By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, May 18 - A late strike from Surendra
Tamang gave Three Star a 1-0 win over Friends’ Club here Thursday in the Martyrs
Memorial ‘A’ division league.
Tamang broke the deadlock in the 84th minute when
he unleashed a deft left footer after teammate Deepak Limbu stole the ball from a
Friends’ Club defender a good 12 yards away from penalty area to the left.
The looping shot completely befouled the stand-in
keeper, Gopal Maharjan and hit the top right hand corner of the net.
Friends’Club looked better of the two sides
only to be denied by the luck despite making series of thrustful raids in both halves of
the match.
Rabin Byanjankar hit the near post with his header
as early in the 2nd minute off a nice cross of Rajkumar KC. In the 35th minute, Romesh
Byanjankar was well on target with a long ranger from the right but that failed to beat
the guard of the Three Star keeper, Manik Shakya.
Three Star’s performance, meanwhile, apart
from some gutsy defending remained below par with midfield remaining much to be desired.
They had a half chance in the 13th minute, but
skipper Deepak Amatya’s freekick sailed wide off the target.
Friends’ Club maintained the pressure even
after the restart, making nice wall passes as well as some good overlapping moves from
either end. But the success continued to elude them because of poor finishing and brave
goalkeeping from Shakya.
In the 65th minute, Lakhan Chaudhary overlapping
from the back, directed a thunderous right footer from 30 yards away only to be tipped
over the bars by the keeper.
The chances kept on coming thick and fast for the
Kupondole side but with a failure to arrest their casual approach up front, none of them
could reach the back of the net.
Three Star brought in Surendra Tamang for under
performing Chet Narayan Shrestha, and Tamang instilled much needed thrust to their
midfield. Few minutes later he justified his presence with that spectacular goal.
Within a minute after conceding the goal, they
squandered an equaliser when Rabin Byanjankar ballooned a fine chance from the close. That
was soon followed by another wastage when Bimal Karki headed wide off the target on Rabin
Byanjankar’s cross.
Friends’ Club could have return home without
defeat but they were too unfortunate not to find the target inspite of so many good tries
from close range.
Three Star keeper, Shakya reproduced his heroics to
keep the clean sheet with outstanding saves.
Earlier, Kathmandu Club shrugged off their poor
sequence as they forced NRT to share the points with 1-1 draw in the opening match of the
day.
NRT, despite managing an upperhand throughout,
failed to put in similar showing as in their last two outings and missed several easy
scoring chances.
The absence of their star striker, Hari Thakuri,
did not help their cause either as other operating up front failed to match his class.
Kalyan Khadgi hit the post with his header in the
9th minute and Prabin Pradhananga’s shot from the close failed to match his nice foot
work and Kathmandu Club keeper, Narendra Shakya, saved it without difficulty.
Throughout the entire first session, Kathmandu Club
managed a lone shot at goal. But Sunny Shrestha made the mess of a fine pass from the
veteran, Rajesh Manandhar, with a weak shot to the keeper.
NRT finally took the lead in the 32nd minute when
Purna Limbu headed home the ball on Sarbagya Manandhar’s corner. They had a fine
chance to go 2-0 into the half time, but Prabin Pradhananga was slow to react on
Sarbagya’s superb pass inside the penalty box.
The second session witnessed a totally different
Kathmandu Club. Playing some swift diagonal passes, they easily created enough space in
the NRT territory. And Sanjay Lama fired home from the right on Dinesh Thapa’s cross
to make it 1-1 in the 63rd minute.
With well measured passes coming from Rajesh
Manandhar, Thapa had at least couple of clear scoring chances but he was wide off the
target on both the times.
NRT kept on pushing hard for three points but again
Kathmandu keeper proved more than equal to his task when called upon, denying the close
attempts from Prabin Pradhananga and Prabin Dangol in the 73rd and 83rd minutes
respectively.
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