Substitute striker Arif Shaikh’s twin strikes went in vain as Maharashtra conceded a soft goal at the death and went down fighting to Assam in a well-contested Group-B league match of the final round of the National Football Championship 2019 for the Santosh Trophy and played at the Guru Nanak Stadium, in Ludhiana on Thursday evening.
Assam took the lead through Bishnu Bordoloi goal in the 12th minute but they encountered a strong fight from Maharashtra who failed to score in the first period and trailed 0-1 at the break.
The Mumbai-based ONGC player Shaikh, who replaced Saurabh Patil at the start of the second session quickly made his presence felt scoring the equalizer in the 54th minute and then again hit the target in the 76th minute to give Maharashtra a 2-1 lead.
However, Maharashtra were unable to defend the advantage and two minutes later conceded a goal when Milan Basumatary scored in the 78th minute to put Assam on level terms.
Just as the match seemed to be heading for a draw, Assam snatched a later winner when Sirandeep Moran scored in the fourth minute of regulation period to seal Maharashtra’s fate.
Maharashtra has a solitary point for their 2-2 draw with Karnataka in the earlier match. They next take on Punjab in the penultimate group match on Saturday and meet Sikkim in the final league encounter on April 17.
Result – Group-B: Assam 3 (Bishnu Bordoloi 12th, Milan Basumatary 78th, Sirandeep Moran 90+4th) beat Maharashtra 2 (Arif Shaikh 54th, 76th).