Last year’s runner-up St Thomas College, Thrissur staged an incredible fightback to beat Payyanur College 4-2 to enter the semi-final of the TNIE Goal 2019 tournament played at the Maharajas College ground on Tuesday.
St Thomas overturned a 2-0 deficit to win 4-2 and seal their passage. Early in the game, neither team were creating chances until Payyanur’s Adarsh broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute.
Jishnu who was operating on the left wing raced down the flank and picked out the run of Adarsh. His diagonal pass was met with a sublime finish. Adarsh took it first time to beat the keeper at the near post.
St Thomas ended up conceding again when their centre-back tried to clear a ball from Abhiram. Jishnu pounced on the ball and beat the keeper to make it 2-0. They were left trailing 2-0 at half-time and staring at defeat. However, they were a transformed team in the second half.
St Thomas coach Anand Babu had left one of his best players on the bench but called him up at half-time. A quick break from St Thomas saw the substitute Bibin Francis finish a counter-attacking move in the 46th minute.
The second goal was a more emphatic one. Amal Shihab was a livewire down the right flank and he floated in a cross from the right which was met with a thumping header by Anoop VC.
However, the man of the match was Sajith who finished off Payyanur with goals in the 71st and 87th minute.
Result: St Thomas College, Thrissur 4(Bibin Francis 46’, Anoop VC 62’, Sajith 71’, 87’) bt Payyanur College 2 (Adarsh 23’, Jishnu 38’)
