With the victory, the Army Club finished third in the league. [break]
"The title celebration could have been far better if we had finished with a victory," said Three Star coach Pradip Humagain,whose side celebrated the title victory with a city parade from the stadium to Patan, Lalitpur.
The match did not have much significance to Three Star in terms of results as it was already crowned the champion with two matches to spare. But a victory was a must for Army to move one spot up for the third-place finish at the expense of NIBL Friends Club, which moved down to the fourth position.
Army settled for third position with 39 points, two ahead of Friends. Had the match ended in a tie, Army would have finished fourth despite having equal points with Friends on the basis of head-to-head record. Three Star claimed the title with 43 points, two points ahead of second-placed MMC.
Along with title, Three Star bagged a handsome purse of Rs 7.5 million while the second and third place finishers received Rs 3.5 million and Rs 2 million respectively. Fourth placed Friends had to be satisfied with Rs 700,000.
Though Three Star came from behind twice to level the score 2-2 with just three minutes to go, Bharat Khawas’ heroic in the fading moments of the stoppage time secured the important win for Army. In the first round, Army and Three had played a 0-0 draw.
"The win gave the message that Army is also capable of winning important matches," said Army coach Yogembar Suwal during the post-match conference, whose side was tagged of losing vital matches. During the last league match of 2063 BS, a draw against Nepal Police Club could have been sufficient for Army to secure the title while the former was in a must-win situation for the same honors. In such condition, Army was defeated and was forced to surrender the title.
Analyzing his team´s overall performance in the league, Suwal said, "Though I am satisfied with the performance, there are lots of rooms for improvement. Our performance was inconsistent and we could have finished second had we not slipped in a few initial matches of the super league." Army had wrapped up the first round of the league on second position.
The top eight teams out of 16 then played the super league round.
During Monday’s match, Santosh Nepali had given a 38th minute lead to Army when he scored in his own rebounder off Three Star custodian Kiran Chemjong from the six-yard box.
But, Three Star skipper Santosh Sahukhala squared the score five minutes into the second half. Sahukhala headed from the crowded six-yard box in Bijay Gurung´s freekick.
Tek Bahadur Budathoki restored Army’s lead in the 73rd minute from close range beating the advancing custodian Chemjong. Three Star skipper Sahukhala came to the rescue as he leveled the score score 2-2 in the 87th minute. Sahukhala´s curing freekick from the left flank entered the net dodging Army custodian Ganga Ram Deuja.
Three Star’s joys were short lived as Khawas tapped in a cross from Raju Tamang in the injury time wrap up the victory.
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