The Hindu : Sport / Football : Palakkad upsets Thiruvananthapuram

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Thursday, Mar 09, 2006

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Sport - Football

Palakkad upsets Thiruvananthapuram

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Palakkad upset defending champion Thiruvananthapuram 2-1 to enter the semifinals of the State Youth football championship for the O.C. Cherian memorial trophy at the Central stadium here on Wednesday.

Two goals in space of four minutes by Palakkad ended the aspirations of the host, which was rusty and failed to combine as a unit for major part of the match. Both the Palakkad goals came through sloppy defending. Though Thiruvananthapuram raised visions of a fight-back by pulling one back at the start of the second half, it found a stubborn Palakkad defence a tough nut to crack.

After a few hesistant probing, Palakkad broke the deadlock in the 36th minute when Ramesh dispossessed the ball from Thiruvananthapuram's Shafeeq and advanced through the right flank and his centre was booted in by Mohammed Amer.

Thiruvananthapuram defenders were seen in poor light as they failed to clear a high cross from the left flank and an unmarked Ramesh headed in the second goal in the 40th minute.

Thiruvananthapuram struck early in the second half through Antony Raj Simon in the 48th minute. But Thiruvananthapuram's fight-back was quashed by Palakkad, which defended in numbers.

Malappuram stormed into the semifinals with a 6-2 win over Kollam. After a goalless first half, the contest turned lively as Malappuram shrugged off its indifferent form to toy with its rival. Striker K. Firoz had a memorable outing as he scored thrice (75th, 87th and 88th). M.P. Sakeer, who struck a brace (79th and 83rd) and T.T. Shaji (48th) were the other goal-scorers.

For Kollam, captain Kannan struck a brace to reduce the margin of victory. — Principal Correspondent

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