Services came up with a confident performance to down Uttarakhand 4-1 in its final group-E outing of the 77th Senior National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy, at the GNDU Sports Complex, Amritsar on Tuesday. With this win Services claimed the top spot in the group standings with an all win record. Mizoram took the second spot in the group league standings by trouncing Pondicherry 6-0.
The result helped Services net the full 15 points from five wins. It joined the other group league winners — Goa, Delhi, Manipur, Assam and Maharashtra — in the final round — the dates of which are yet to be announced — which will be played in the Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar.
The six group league winner joined holder Karnataka, last year’s runner-up Meghalaya and host Arunachal, which secured an automatic qualification to the final stage earlier.
The three best group league runners-up — Mizoram, Kerala and Railways — also moved to the final stage, which will be played in a 12-team format. The final round, which will have the 12 teams divided in two groups, will see another phase of group league matches from where the best two teams of each group will progress to the semifinals.
The results: Group E: Services 4 (Bikash Thapa 30, 75, Samir Murmu 41, 66) bt Uttarakhand 1 (Ayush Bisht 48); Mizoram 6 (Lalkhawpuimawia 16, 87, Pc Lallawmkima 72, 77, 83, Lalrinchhana Tochhawg 90+5) bt Puducherry 0; Sikkim 2 (Basil Limboo 13, Ong Tshering Lepcha 25) bt Daman and Diu 1 (Sagar Shekhar Powar 10).
