GUWAHATI, May 17 � Spirited Manipur earned full points from their opening match of the Santosh Trophy quarterfinal league at the Nehru Stadium here this evening with a convincing 2-1 victory against Tamil Nadu.
It was a barren first session where Manipur boys had distinct domination with more ball possession. Capitalising on a defensive lapse I Nilakumar Singh took control of the ball and beat the Tamil Nadu goalkeeper Arun Pradeep with a gentle shot at the far post keeping his cool.
Ramesh drew parity in the 63rd minute with a beautiful goal. Sanjha sent the ball to Fredy who set it up for Ramesh to drive home. But their jubilation was short lived as L Naba Ch Singh put Manipur 2-1 ahead after five minutes with an angular shot from inside the box.
Earlier, Manipur boys took more attacking initiatives at the initial stage and kept the ball in their possession for most part of the first session. L Thoiba Singh, Th Santosh Singh and L Tiken Singh combined well in the upfront and kept the Tamil Nadu defenders on their toes. Both Thoiba and Tiken missed the target by a whisker. Arun Pradeep did some good work under the bar and saved his team on a couple of occasion in the first 45 minutes.
Tamil Nadu striker, Bharathi Raja, missed the target in the 37th minute which could be termed as the best scoring opportunity in the first half. He found Manipur custodian L Prem Kumar Singh alone in front of the goal but failed to beat him in a point blank situation.
