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Imphal, Feb 8 (IANS) In the reverse leg of the Imphal Derby and in front of a crowd of 34,971 spectators at the floodlit Khuman Lampak Stadium here on Saturday, Neroca FC cruised to a 5-0 win over TRAU FC, thanks to a hat-trick by Pritam Singh and two assists by Imran Khan.
The win re-energised the I-league campaign of Neroca, who now have 11 points from 11 games and are placed eighth on the table.
The first half of the match saw a lot of the play in the mid-field. The main moment of the half came in the 17th minute when Neroca's Ousmane Diawara received a lofted through-ball from the midfield but TRAU's Sandeep Singh handled the ball to stop Diawara from being through on goal. The handball cost the team as referee Pratik Mondal immediately took out the red card.
Down to 10 men with more than 70 minutes to play, the game was looking like shifting completely towards Neroca FC. Philip Tettey, after the sending off, took the free-kick from outside the box but it went straight to the TRAU keeper.
The remainder of the half saw Neroca not being able to make the most of the chances that they generated. The half ended with both the teams level at 0-0.
Neroca looked a completely different team in the second half. The first goal came from Philip Tettey in the 50th minute, who got a square ball at the edge of the TRAU box from Imran Khan. Tettey twisted his body and unleashed a powerful strike which rocketed into the top right corner of the net.
Tettey's goal opened the floodgates and what followed was a flurry of goals. Jiteshwor Singh sent a measured through ball to Imran Khan who completed a clinical move to hand Neroca a 2-0 lead in the 58th minute.
Pritam Singh then got in the act. After receiving a pass from Khan, Singh dribbled past Mithun Samanta in the goal to completed a calm finish in the 60th minute.
Six minutes later, Singh got the ball from Khan and beat Tonmoy Ghosh before placing the ball in the back of the net to hand his side a 4-0 lead.
In the first minute of added time, Tettey was again through on the goal and had a clear shot but his attempt was stopped by Samanta. The rebound fell to Singh, who netted the ball with a powerful shot, thus completing his first hat-trick in I-League.
--IANS
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