After a slugglish early exchanges charactarised by mis-passes and wayward shots, the game came into life in the 20th minute when Army hitman Shrestha squandered an easy scoring opportunity. Fellow forward Bharat Khawas teed up a defense spliting pass into the area where Shrestha was nicely place to slot home but, with only goalkeeper Ritesh Thapa the beat, the striker ended up blasting out at the far post.

Shrestha made amends for the miss 13 minutes later when he flicked in from close range a Deep Lama left wing cross to give Armymen the deserved lead.

The Policemen had their chance to sqaure the scores, albeit a difficult one, two minutes later when skipper Jumanu Rai was one-on-one with TAC glovesman Bikash Malla but all that the striker could do  from a tight angle was hit the body of

the keeper.

TAC re-asserted their authority in the game even after resumption, coming close to doubling their lead in the 71st minute when Shrestha’s shot in Deep Lama’s cross was denied by an alert NPC custodian Thapa. The sloppy NPC defending was finally made to pay in the 73rd minute. A left flank cross from Lama roll all the way past a crowded area and across the face of the goal at the far post for Gurung to tap in for goal. NPC could have been in a position of making a comeback but

for an error of judgement from skipper Rai.

Fed inside the area, Rai wrong-footed TAC keeper Malla but instead of poking the ball above the fallen goalkeeper, the NPC skipper tried go around him allowing the defense to rush back and foil the chance.

NPC coach Birat Krishna Shrestha blamed the lack of coordination for his side’s defeat. “Our players did not stick to the basics of football and failed to create any pressure on the opponents,” said the NPC coach.

His TAC counterpart Megh Raj KC believed that the deserving team won. “None of the eight participating teams are favourite or minows. I don’t consider the MMC and Three Star loss as upsets. I believe Jhapa and APF won because they were better than their so-called big teams on the particular day,” said KC.

In the semi-fials, TAC will meet the winners of Friday’s match between Sankata Club and Morang Football Club.