Leaders Jawalakhel stretched their lead at top after they humiliated ten-man Nepal Police Club 6-1 in the Martyrs Memorial A-Division League at the Chyasal Stadium in Lalitpur on Wednesday.

Hisub Thapaliya and Nkota Masoabi scored two goals each against a lowly departmental side as Jawalakhel opened a three point gap at top with 20 points from 10 matches.

Fode Fofana and Abdulaziz Nishonbav were also on targets for Jawalakhel.

Wednesday’s defeat—their seven in ten games—puts five-time A-Division champions Police in deep crisis as they are rooted at the bottom of the 14-team standings with just five points—five adrift of safe zone.

Police’s trouble started in the 29th minute when their captain Ram Chandra Wajee was shown a direct red card for deliberately handling the ball as he tried to prevent Police from conceding a goal and Guinea forward Fofana scored from the spot kick to put Jawalakhel in front.

Thapaliya doubled the lead in the 51st minute. After picking out by Fofana at the edge of the area, Thapaliya showed good footwork to beat Police goalkeeper Shatrudhan Chaudhary and fired low for a cool finish.

Masobi rubbed the salt into the Police wounds hitting the net twice in the 65th and 81st minutes, first slamming the back of the net from a tight angle and then pouncing on a blunder from Police goalkeeper Chaudhary, who advanced beyond to area only to nervously misplace the ball for the Mosotho forward.

Thapaliya furthered the lead three minutes later in almost a carbon copy of his first goal of the match, this time dancing past advancing goalie Chaudhary near the arc of the circle and hitting into the bottom of the net.

Moses G Twum scored the consolation goal in the 88th minute firing low drilling past Jawalakhel glovesman Anish Deula after Chaudhary linked him with a long pass.

Abdulaziz Nishonbaev rounded off the victory from a freekick in the 2nd minute of the second half injury time.

At the Dasharath Stadium, Armed Police Force (APF) Club dealt another blow to reigning champions Machhindra’s hopes of defending their crown with a 1-0 victory.

Armand Beadoum scored the decisive goal in the 40th minute capitalising on a clever through pass from Nabin Lama.

Sankata Club missed their opportunity to climb to second and cut the gap on top after they lost to strugglers Friends Club 3-1 in the late fixture at the Dasharath Stadium.

Prakash Budhathoki, Torric Jebrin and Rafiq Aminu got on scoresheet for Friends. Junior Nkengue pulled one back for Sankata.

The win moved Friends up to 10 in the standings.