Chandigarh, May 4: Last year's semifinalists, Punjab State Electricity Board, Patiala beat defending champions West Bengal State Electricity Board, Calcutta 6-3 via tie-breaker to lift the title in the 25th All India Electricity Board football tournament which concluded at Sector 17 Football Stadium here today. The teams were locked 2-2 each during the regulation period.In a fast pace encounter WBSEB failed to deliver the goods at the right time for which the team paid dearly. Last year's winners, took the lead in the opening minutes of the game. Thereafter, they failed to keep up the tempo and eventual lost the grip over the match. They had ball possession for a major period in both the halves, but lacked a sharp shooter, who could have saved the day.
Though, in the dying minutes of the game, WBSEB's A Siddique brought some hopes of winning back the trophy, when he lobbed the ball into the net on the rebound, to make it 2-2 each. But he failed to convert during the tie-breaker, for which he repented later on. SK Sikander also failed to convert. D Ghosh was the only player to convert the spot kick.
For PSEB, Dalip, Sandeep, Jhujar Singh and Parminder Singh converted.
Earlier, in the first half, when the match was only four minutes old, JK Saha scored for WBSEB. The lead was short lived as a minute later Kuldeep beat the advancing goalie RN Mukerjee (1-1).
PSEB, however, were able to consolidate the lead in the 13th minute when a powerful shot by Hardeep from 25 yards caught the keeper napping.
Down by a goal, Calcutta powermen did not lose hope and with short and accurate passes made inroads into the rival territory. But a man-to-man marking by opponents foiled their moves.
Despite that S Dutta came near to scoring just before the lemon break, but a timely save by goalkeeper averted the danger. For unsportsman like conduct yellow cards were flashed to PSEB's Harvinder and S Dutta of WBSEB by referee Arun Kant.
In the second session PSEB played defensive and managed to keep the rival attackers at bay. However, after a period of dull, the momentum of the game picked up again. PSEB missed to further increase the margin while WBSEB also lost two scoring chances. However, on the counter-attack WBSEB earned a flag kick. SK Sikander floated the ball from the right corner inside the penalty box, which was punched by Balwinder.
But on the rebound A Siddique send the ball into the net (2-2). And the fate of the teams was decided by penalty shoot, in which PSEB prevailed over the opponents.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
