SHILLONG: Bekay Bawar’s four goals saw Royal Wahingdoh FC surge to an 8-0 victory over MP United FC in a Second Division I-League Group A match in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, on Saturday, which also lifted the club to the top spot in the standings.
The first half ended without scoring, but the Royals made a great comeback in the second session under wet pitch conditions.
The Liberian cleared the opposition goalkeeper early in the second half to give Wahingdoh the lead before Seityasen Singh doubled his team’s tally a few minutes later.
Midfielder Nabachandra provided the third goal before Bekay added a further three goals, completing his hat-trick in the process.
Just as the onslaught appeared to be over, Jackichand Singh fired the ball into the corner of the net, while Sena finished the match off with a late strike.
In the other game on Saturday, Kalighat Milan Sangha overwhelmed Garhwal FC, who are now fourth in the table, 5-0.
RWFC and Kalighat both have eight points from four games each, but the Shillong team have a better goal difference (+15 to +9).
In Friday’s match, third-placed Green Valley beat PIFA Sports 1-0.
Only two teams from the group will proceed to the next round and, while Wahingdoh’s chances look very good, they are still not guaranteed one of those spots.
They will play their last fixture against fifth-placed PIFA Sports on Monday at 9:30am.
All of the top four teams still have a mathematical chance of going through.
Meanwhile, the teams progressing from Group B were decided on Saturday.
Playing in Gangtok, toppers Hindustan FC beat second-placed Bhawanipore FC 2-1, while Eagles FC defeated Kenkre Sports 2-0.
Eagles of Kerala finished on seven points along with Bhawanipore, but the latter went better on head-to-head and goal difference.
Aizawl FC were fourth, while Kenkre ended up fifth in the five-team group.
