Sankata Club rallied from a goal down to beat Nepal Police Club (NPC) 2-1 in the 15th Aaha-Rara Gold Cup football tournament here at the Pokhara Stadium on Friday.

NPC took the 35th minute lead through Ravi Paswan before Bishwo Adhikari equalised for Sankata in the 64th minute. Substitute Anil Gurung struck in the 87th minute to put Sankata in the quarter-finals. They will now meet Farashgunj SC of Bangladesh in the last eight.

The first real chance for NPC came in the 27th minute Tirtha Rana fed Bhola Silwal inside the Sankata area but his shot went inches above the bar. The departmental side took the lead in an unconvincing manner when Sunil Bal set for Paswan inside the box and the latter’s cross beat everyone at the Sankata goal.

NPC had several scoring chances in the first half but they missed out to gain an upper hand in the game. Sankata regrouped after the break and came as better opponents in the second half.

Adhikari levelled the game for Sankata spectacularly converting a freekick. The goal boosted Sankata and they soon began taking control of the game and were duly rewarded in the 87th minute. NPC custodian Dipesh Yadav managed to block a shot from Adhikari but the ball fell to unmarked Gurung who made no mistake scoring close from the goal line.

Adhikari was adjudged the man-of-the-match for playing a key role in sending the four-time champions NPC home from their first match. NPC coach Kumar Katuwal said inexperience of players cost them the match.

“We are not in a regular training, while a generation of good footballers in NPC are gone. We cannot expect big things from our rookie players,” said Katuwal adding his side was not able to play the game according to strategy.

Sankata coach Salyan Khadgi was happy to see his plans working in the game. “We had plans of analysing their (NPC) game in the first half and went on to concede the goal. But we had plans for the second half and that perfectly worked for us,” said Khadgi.