TN, MP post impressive wins

Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh began their campaign in the Junior National football championship with identical 3-0 victories over Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh respectively in Jaipur on Thursday.

In other matches, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh played a 1-1 draw in Cluster III, while hosts Rajasthan got a walkover from Andaman and Nicobar in Cluster VI.

For Rajasthan, hosting the championships after a gap of 37 years, it was a disappointing start to their campaign as Andaman and Nicobar failed to turn up.

The MP boys were too good for HP in Cluster VI and they took the lead in the 24th minute.

A minute later MP were 2-0 ahead when Ibrahim capitalised on a defensive lapse to slip the ball in.

HP's agony was compounded when, in the 38th minute, Shalendra put his team 3-0 ahead.

The second half went goalless as MP happily held on to their lead till the final whistle.

In Cluster III, spurred by Senthil Kumar's brace, Tamil Nadu thrashed Uttar Pradesh 3-0.

After a goalless first half, TN struck twice in quick succession through Senthil Kumar in the 41st and 43rd minutes to go 2-0 ahead.

UP failed to retaliate and a few chances they created were not enough to pose any threat to the Tamil Nadu goal.

In the dying minutes, Satish Kumar settled the issue for Tamil Nadu scoring the team's third goal.

Against AP, Maharashta had a disastrous start when they conceded a self goal four minutes into the match.

Andhra striker K Kiran, after going deep inside the rival territory, fired a powerful shot and defender Vaibhav Kadam directed it towards his own goal while trying to clear the danger.

Undeterred, Maharashtra restored parity ten minutes later through Abhishek Yadav to make it 1-1.

In the 24th minute, Maharashtra got another opportunity but A Ansari muffed and failed to score when the ball popped out of Andhra goalkeeper's grasp.

The second half passed off without troubling the scorers and it looked as if the teams were exhausted after a gruelling first half.