Established just about a decade ago in Pokhara, Laligurans Association Club might be new to Nepal’s professional football scene but they are not to be taken lightly. And they proved as much on Thursday when they edged A-Division regulars Jawalakhel Youth Club 1-0 at the National League at ANFA Complex in Satdobato, Lalitpur.

Laligurans Association, commonly known as LG, was established as a club focused on cultural activities, especially concerts, and it has not been long since they decided to invest in sports. But within a short period of time, they have made significant strides in the country’s football scene.

The club won the Balram KC Memorial District-level League-cum-knockout Football Tournament in May 2024. As the champions of Kaski, they then entered the Gandaki Province League, and won that too. As the provincial champions, LG qualified for the ANFA President League, which took place in Makwanpur district in November last year, and went on to win it too.

Buoyed by this series of success, Kiran Shrestha, the club’s head coach, had said in the pre-tournament conference that his side were ready to face any top-tier club in the country. Kiran’s confidence was not misguided as his side started their National League campaign with a win.

“It feels nostalgic, given we were up against Jawalakhel Youth Club,” Kiran, who spent years as a player with Jawalakhel, said after the 1-0 win at ANFA Complex. “When I faced Jawalakhel as an opponent today, I wanted to win,” added Kiran, who is considered to be a player who would always be in Jawalakhel’s best-ever Playing XI. “But I always have respect for this club, and the coach.”

Kiran had also played under Jawalakhel’s head coach Sunil Kumar Shrestha.

“Sunil guru is someone I respect dearly,” Kiran went on. “It is not about whether I defeated him today. It is about my team winning. My players performed well today despite being young and inexperienced compared to Jawalkhel’s squad. I am happy with their performance, but there is room for improvement.”

LG won with a goal that they scored in less than two minutes of the game. A freekick from near the half-way line by Lachhu Thapa went high up and then down inside the 18-yard box for Raj Bhusal to head it in. Thapa was later adjudged the ‘Player of the Match’.

“Lachhu, with the experience he carries, was great today,” Kiran said in the post-match conference when asked about Thapa. “But all the other players also did well. They were organised and played according to the tactics.”

LG had other chances to extend the lead, but they could not capitalise on them. Jawalakhel, too, had chances—in fact, more than LG had.

“We could not convert the chances we got,” head coach Sunil said after the loss. “And we fell victim to the early goal we conceded while trying to get organised on the ground in our first match of the tournament. Kudos to Laligurans for their performance.”

Only in the six-minutes of injury time added in the end, Jawalakhel had at least two good chances to equalise. But they were foiled by LG’s goalkeeper Anish Mahato.

Mahato made several good saves throughout the match. Out of them, he had saved the ball with one hand during the attempts by Dharbendra Kunwar and Nicholas Odane Hamilton in the injury time of the first half and 78th minute, respectively.

“We still have a good number of matches remaining,” said Sunil. “We will come back stronger.”

Satdobato and Sankata goalless

Earlier in the day, two top-tier clubs—Satdobato Youth Club and Sankata FC—played a goalless stalemate at the same ground.

Both teams had chances to score, but they could not realise it. Fode Fofana had a great chance in the 23rd minute for Satdobato as he had gone past the keeper, but his shot hit the post.

A couple of minutes later, Fofana was down on the ground with a groin injury. The dugout was under pressure after that as Satdobato did not have his replacement. But when Fofana got up and decided to continue, Satdobato’s head coach Bal Gopal Sahu appeared relieved.

However, the relief did not last long as Fofana was again on the ground in the 28th minute. And this time he needed to be subbed off.

“Fofana’s injury was a blow for us as we did not have any other experienced forwards like him,” Sahu said in the post-match conference. “We are looking for other central forwards, especially foreigners, to strengthen our depth and bench.”

Even without Fofana, Satdobato were still creating chances. But Sankata’s two tall centre backs from Africa—Wendpanga Giblert Bilgo and Taye Daniel Badaru—fended off the attacks. And on rare instances that Satdobato got past Sankata’s defence, goalkeeper Tikendra Singh Thapa would come to the rescue.

Sankata also created chances, especially in the second half. But they also could not capitalise on any of them.

“Our main plan for today was to not lose points. And we were successful with that,” said Sankata’s head coach Rabindra Silakar. “We mostly have youngsters, and they did good to connect with the experienced ones.”

According to Silakar, Sankata have seven U18 players from their academy. “We will give them chances in the upcoming matches because they need exposure,” he said. “But at the same time, we will also use our experienced players to keep on earning points and staying in the fight for the title.”