Though Army climbed on top of the standings after the outcome, it will drop one spot down to second after the outcome of last fixture between Three Star Club and Manang Marshyangdi Club (MMC) scheduled for Saturday. Army (33 points), Three Star Club (32 points) and MMC (31 points) are top three teams in the standings.
Three Star and MMC are the only teams yet to play their last match. The winner among any of the teams will be crowned champion while the losing side will finish third. Meanwhile, a draw will also be sufficient for Three Star to win the champions trophy despite finishing with equal 33 points as that of Army on the basis of away goal. Three Star had played a goalless draw with Army in home match and finished with 1-1 draw in the away match. Thus the Patan based team will be favored by away goals in case the match ends in draw.
Coach Meghraj KC who guided the team to second position in his very first season in charge of the departmental team was euphoric with the run of the team. "To finish second in the league is great achievement for the team. The credit of the success goes to hard work of the players," said coach KC who also lauded the team management for the success. "The management coordinated very well with the players since the onset of the tournament and team effort of both players and management has been a key to our success," he summed up.
On Friday, Tek Bahadur Budhathoki, Nawayug Shrestha and Tanka Basnet were on targets for Army in its identical margin win over the departmental rival in both legs.
Tek gave breakthrough to Army in the 29th minute capitalizing on pass of skipper Bharat Khawas. He carefully rolled the ball between legs of defender Suraj BK which was also enough to beat goalie Roshan Khadka. He took his goals tally to eight goals.
Nawayug netted the second five minutes after the break to take his tally to the tournament highest at 14 goals. Karna Limbu of Jhapa XI stands second in the highest scorers list with 13 goals. Tanka Basnet sealed the victory in the 82. He sprinted with the ball beating the defender and sending the ball past goalie Roshan.
Police coach Birat Krishna Shrestha said that the overall run of the team in the league was unsatisfactory due to injury of players and various other reasons. "We have been plagued by injury of players since long and we fielded half fit forward today as well," Shrestha said adding that playing various tournaments outside Kathmandu resulted in several injuries.
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