Ugandan striker Fazila Ikwaput played havoc as Gokulam Kerala registered their fourth consecutive win routing Sethu FC 4-1 in the concluding match of the Round Six at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday.
Fazila’s four-goal blitz was too much to handle for the home team, who could do little to curb the brilliance of the Ugandan, who took her tally of goals to 14 from six matches in the current campaign. This was her third hat-trick of the season.
In a blistering opening period of play, Gokulam Kerala hit Sethu FC with a double whammy, ten minutes apart. In the first instance, in the 10th minute, a long ball from Ratan Bala Devi saw Fazila Ikwaput beat Khambi Chanu to the ball and finish to give the visitors the lead.
The second arrived similarly 10 minutes later, this time Shilky Devi’s through ball splitting through the Sethu defense for Fazila to run through and slide a side-footed finish in the far corner.
Sethu has built a reputation as a team that is hard to put away, and so it proved. The next 25 minutes of the first half some fantastic football from the Tamilnadu side. Five minutes after that second goal, they halved the deficit, Phanjoubam Nirmala Devi curling the ball into goal straight from a corner to score. Goalkeeper Payal Basude’s blushes could perhaps be reduced by the fact that the ball also beat the defender at the far post and bounced in off the woodwork.
3 minutes later, Normal Devi tested Payal again with a long ranger and Payal spilled it. However, she could save the shot from the rebound. Sethu seemed to have equalised in first-half injury time and was wheeling off to celebrate before spotting the flag up for offside. The ladies of Madurai were knocking at the door and Gokulam’s defense looked shaky.
The second half started with an attack from the visiting side. Muskan Subba’s header from the lobbed pass from Ratan Bala missed the target. Fazila’s longranger from the outside went straight into the hands of the goalkeeper. The hosts carried their momentum into the second half and kept knocking at the door, without ever actually managing to get the elusive equaliser. They forced saves off Basude and in one clear opportunity, Hadijah Nandago, having been played through one on one, hit a weak shot straight at the goalkeeper.
Gokulam duly capitalized on the misses, Fazila completing her third hat trick of the season on the hour mark, a long ball again the source of Sethu’s doom. Exploiting the high line, Fazila brought the ball under control, and dinked it over the onrushing goalkeeper, before smashing it into the net from a mere two yards out.
Sethu kept coming though and in the 71st minute, Moussa headed the ball onto the target. Nevertheless, the custodian Payal made a diving save, keeping the lead intact. In the 79th minute, Nandago’s volley forced another sharp save from Basude. From the ensuing corner, Moussa Zouwairatou’s header was cleared off the line to keep Gokulam’s lead intact.
Fazila added a fourth to her and the team’s tally in the 88th minute. Having picked up the ball inside the left channel in the box, the forward let fly despite the tight angle beating Khambi Chanu at the near post.
The result maintained Gokulam’s unbeaten record in the season and increased their tally to 14 points, one behind current leaders East Bengal. Sethu FC remained at 10 points in six matches.
