Imphal: Neroca FC cruised to a 5-0 win over Tiddim Road Athletic Union (TRAU) FC in the reverse leg of the Imphal Derby at the floodlit Khuman Lampak Stadium on Saturday. In front of a massive crowd of 34,971 spectators, Pritam Singh scored a hat-trick and Imran Khan got two assists as Neroca took the revenge of their loss in the first-ever Imphal derby in style. The win can work as a re-energizing factor for Neroca's I-league campaign, who now have 11 points from 11 games and are placed eighth on the table.
The first half of the match saw a lot of the play in the midfield. The prime moment of the half came in the 17th minute when Neroca's Ousmane Diawara received a beautifully lofted through-ball from the midfield and TRAU's Sandeep Singh handled the ball to stop Diawara from going through on goal. The handball cost the team as referee Pratik Mondal immediately took out the red card.
After being down to 10 men with over 70 minutes of play left, the game titled heavily towards Neroca FC. Philip Tettey, after the sending off, took the free-kick from outside the box but sent it straight at the TRAU keeper.
The remainder of the half saw Neroca unable to make the most of the chances that they had generated with two clear ones for Tettey. Trau's defence wasn't ready to make it easy for the home team and the half ended with both the teams level at 0-0.
The second half resumed with Neroca looking like a completely different team as they came with a plan to catch TRAU at the back and split them to get themselves through on goal. The first goal came from none other than Tettey in the 50th minute, who got a square ball at the edge of the TRAU box from Imran Khan. Tettey took a vicious turn and unleashed a thunderous strike into the top right corner.
Tettey's goal opened the floodgates and what followed was a flurry of goals - one that the Imphal crowd thoroughly enjoyed. Jiteshwor Singh then set up Imran Khan, who was the provider in the last goal, with the through ball and the latter completed a clinical move to hand Neroca a 2-0 lead with 58 minutes on the clock.
It was after that Pritam got into the act for Neroca. It was Khan's ball that split the defence and led to Pritam being one-on-one with the TRAU keeper. He dribbled past Mithun Samanta in the goal and with a calm finish in the 60th minute, put Neroca 3-0 up.
For his second, Pritam got the ball from Imran in the 66th minute, beat Tonmoy Ghosh with his pace and shot it into the back of the net.
Pritam, having scored a brace, was looking set for a hat-trick when Singam Subash Singh cut inside and gave him a perfect cross but with an open goal in front, the forward fluffed his lines.
In the first minute of added time though, Tettey was again through on the goal and had a clear shot but his attempt was stopped by Samanta. The rebound fell to Pritam, who made no mistake this time and netted the ball with a powerful shot and thus completed his first hat-trick in the I-League and the Imphal derby.
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