Shillong, Sep 25: An excellent goalkeeping performance by Padam Chettri and a late header from Raikutshisha Buam was enough to give Rangdajied United a 1-0 win and a vital three points over Meghalaya Police in the Shillong Premier League here today.
As the inability of either side to score seemed apparent as the match wore on it became clear that whichever side was to score even once would probably go on to win the game.
For much of the 90 minutes, though, it looked like MLP were going to be the team that scored, but somehow their efforts never could find a way through.
In the 31st minute a fingertip save by Chettri denied Lalramtara Ngamlai and the cops were denied again, this time by the upright, in the 34th.
Tyngshainlang Rani then narrowly missed being on target with a nice left-footer in the 40th minute.
Chettri kept up his strong performance in the second half, making a stunner in the 62nd and then putting out a scorcher of a shot from Emerald Jyrwa around 10 minutes later.
There were some opportunities created now and then by Rangdajied, but they really weren’t all that convincing, especially compared to the first leg when they beat the cops 2-0.
Their breakthrough came about when a foul was committed by MLP and Buam leapt up over the other players and headed it into the net for his fourth goal of the season. This also happens to be the third straight game in which the police have conceded a goal in the final 10 minutes of a match.
Victory takes RUFC back to second place in the standings. The 2013 champions now have 18 points from nine games, three points behind Langsning and two ahead of Shillong Lajong. Lajong, however, have played one less match. MLP, meanwhile, stay in fourth position on 11 points.
There’ll be no matches for the next two days, but on Friday Nangkiew Irat will face Malki at 3:15PM.
(TSR photo. Rangdajied United are in blue, Meghalaya Police in black)
