Yet another major title for the Reds after Shillong Premier League win
Shillong: Redeem Tlang scored a hat-trick as the Reds inflicted a 5-0 thrashing on 58 GTC to win the 23rd Meghalaya Invitation Football Tournament at the SSA stadium, Polo on Saturday.
It was a cakewalk for Lajong who took the game in control within 10 minutes of kick off. Their opponents, meanwhile, were left doing the defending job throughout the tie.
In one of the most one-sided finals of recent times, Lajong scored four times in the second half thus ruling out any chance of a GTC comeback. The Reds had opened their account on the 27th minute.
Earlier, SLFC’s Bipin came close to scoring on the 4th minute but GTC’s Bikash Majhi’s safe pair of hands took care of the threat.
GTC were mere spectators in the opening half as they could not break into Lajong’s end and gave away the ball cheaply.
On the 27th minute Redeem’s brilliance saw him slotting an easy ball home to give the Reds the deserving lead, howver despite having a firm grip over the match they could not add to the lead.
In the closing stages of the first half GTC did get a clear cut chance but Bikash Thapa’s shot on goal was taken care of by Phurba.
GTC’s hope of second half recovery disappeared as Allen Deory scored in the 48th minute to double the lead, and before GTC could gather their thoughts, Redeem struck twice on the 54th and 63rdminutes respectively to claim his hat trick and give Lajong a 4-0 lead.
GTC were nowhere near in challenging the Reds and they looked helpless playing the rest of the match in their own half.
With Lajong refusing to stop, GTC’s condition got worse when Bipin Singh struck the fifth one for Lajong on the 86th minute to take a thumping 5-0 lead.
The Reds continued to look for goals but the referee blew the final whistle to end GTC’s misery and crown Shillong Lajong champions of the 23rd Meghalaya invitation Football Tournament, 2016.
Lajong gaffer Thangboi Singto was elated with the win and said that the boys played as per the plan.
“I think sometimes the plan works. They are a physical team and they play direct football, so we wanted to press hard upfront and stop them from attacking,” Singto said.
While praising the boys he further added, “The boys have played exceptionally well and it’s great to win this after our recent victory in SPL.”
The winners took home a trophy and a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakh and the runners-up received Rs. 1 lakh cash apart from the trophy.