KATHMANDU, Sept 11: New Road Team (NRT) toiled hard to beat Mahabir Club 2-1 in the Martyrs Memorial B Division League football tournament on Sunday and opened two points lead atop the table.
The win over minnow Mahabir at the ANFA ground, Satdobato has given NRT a two-point lead over second placed Ranipokhari Corner Team (RCT), which overcame Tushal Youth Club 2-0 in another match held at the APF ground, Halchowk.
After playing equal six matches, NRT has 14 points and RCT 12. Mahabir, yet to register win, hits the bottom of the table with one point. Tushal stands on sixth position with seven points in the 14-team contest which sees bottom two teams facing relegation and top two teams earning promotion.
Mahabir stunned NRT with early goal from Kamal Gurung through a 16th minute freekick.
The joy was short lived as Ritesh Malla hit back equalizer for the league leader after two minutes. None of the sides added any goal in the rest of the first half. NRT had to wait until the stoppage time of the second half to score the winner as Abisekh Rai scored an injury-time goal to help New Road Team collect all three points.
In the late match played at Halchowk, RCT scored a goal each in either halves to beat Tushal. Biky Tamang gave the lead to RCT in the 22nd minute and the Jamal-based club was ensured of victory after Ratish Susling of Tushal netted an own goal four minutes from time.
In the kick-off match at Halchowk, a lone goal from Binod Lama became sufficient for Divine Boys Union Club's 1-0 win over Chyasal Youth Club. Binod scored the early seventh-minute goal which turned out to be the decisive goal.
Boys Union has now eight points from six matches and has climbed to the sixth position in the league table, while Chyasal is fifth with ten points after playing equal matches.
Chyasal wins B Division title, NRT back to top flight
