Three Star extends lead with record win

KATHMANDU, Dec 30: Three Star Club extended its lead to five points at the top of the points table on Sunday with a 6-0 rout of relegation-threatened Mahindra Bansbari FC at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu, while NIBL Friends Club achieved its second victory in the Martyrs Memorial A Divison League with a 1-0 win over Yeti Airlines Himalayan Sherpa Club.

Santosh Sahukhala, Feni Joshua and Bijay Gurung netted two goals each as Three Star extended its unbeaten run to nine matches after losing 2-1 to Saraswati in its opening match. [break]The victory also surpassed Nepal Army Club´s 5-0 win over Armed Police Force as the biggest victory of the current league.

After its eighth win, Three Star has 25 points, five points ahead of second and third placed RCT and Machhindra respectively. Machhindra with a match advantage over the leader could reduce the gap to two points if it beat Sankata on Tuesday. Bansbari remained unchanged at second from bottom with five points.

Himalayan Sherpa vs Friends Club (Photo: Bikash Karki)

Friends climbed two spots to ninth with 12 points taking its unbeaten run to seven matches. Sherpa dropped a spot to 11th with 10 points in its kitty.

In the late match of the day, Three Star netted four goals in the second half after Santosh Sahukhala opened the scoring in the 31st minute and Joshua doubled the advantage during the injury time of first half. Sahukhala missed a penalty awarded in the 50th minute when his shot hit the woodwork but he made up for it with his second goal in the 73rd minute. Sahukhala also took his goals tally to 11, two more than second-highest scorer Bharat Khawas of Nepal Army Club.

Joshua netted his second goal in the 68th minute while Bijay Gurung achieved the target two minutes into the second half and five minutes before the end of regulation time. Both Joshua and Gurung took their goals tally to five each.

Three Stars players celebrate goal. (Photo: Bikash Karki)

In the earlier kick-off, Friends´ African recruit Cheikh Oumar scored the all-important goal in the 32nd minute to seal his team´s first victory after five matches. Oumar headed in Nirajan Khadka´s cross to score his first goal. The ball rebounded off the inner edge of the bar and entered the net after taking a deflection off goalie Binay Shrestha.

Monday´s matches

Bauddha Vs Jawalakhel @ 12:30 NST

APF Vs MMC @ 14:30 NST