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Malabar United finishes third

THIRUVALLA: Malabar United, making its debut in the event, defeated Kochi’s Central Excise 2-1 to finish third in the 32nd State inter-club football championship at the Public Stadium here on Friday.

It was a nice finish for the young professional side from Kozhikode which was formed just a few months ago.

But for a major part of the opening session, the Malabar boys appeared to be short of inspiration.

The fast-paced game which one witnessed in their semifinal on Thursday was missing. It could be because they were just fighting for the bronze.

Before the crowd at the stadium could settle down, Central Excise grabbed the lead with Vincent Antony guiding a cross from the left in the second minute.

Central Excise had been busy the last few weeks, in its South Zone and all-India Central Revenue events.

With M.K. Sunil doing a good distribution job, the Kochi side, coached by M.M. Jacob, dominated the first half and the early minutes of the next session.

The equaliser

Malabar’s equaliser came from an unexpected move and caught the Excise defence, which had been doing a good job till then, napping.

Ten minutes into the second-half, Denson Devadas, who had impressed with Viva Kerala last year, foxed the defence nicely.

There was a bit of drama as he kept the defenders guessing for a couple of seconds before sending a slow one as they tried to cover him. The Excise goalkeeper Shinu Joseph was also caught up in the drama and did not notice the ball mischievously bouncing past him.

The match came alive soon after that and the Malabar boys too.

Vijesh shines

Vijesh Kumar stood out with his many crosses from the right, but forward Jack Sebastian, who had looked dangerous on Thursday, was off-colour and slow to react on Friday.

Malabar’s match-winner came from an alert C.K. Jithesh in the 76th minute.

After a defender cleared a dangerous shot from the left, Jithesh pounced on the opportunity and banged home.

State Bank of Travancore will meet Titanium in an all-Thiruvananthapuram final on Saturday.

The result: Third place: Malabar United (Kozhikode) 2 (Daison Devadas 54, C.K. Jithesh 76) bt Central Excise (Kochi) 1 (Vincent Antony 2). — Principal Correspondent

Easy for Eagles

At Kozhikode, Eagles thrashed BSNL 3-0 in the Videocon Kozhikode District ‘C’ Division football league on Friday.

Earlier, Junior Youth beat Railview 3-1 while Brown Shooters defeated Diamond Winners 1-0.

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