Kerala beat Railways 4-2 in their opening Santosh Trophy clash at the GMC Bambolim Stadium in Goa on Wednesday.
Railways surged into the lead through Rajesh Soosanayakam in the 18th minute. However, Kerala restored parity within three minutes with Jobby Justin scoring in the 21st minute. Kerala took the lead at the stroke of half-time, this time Justin finding the back of the net in added time.
In the second half, Kerala were gifted a 3-1 lead when Railways’ Deepak Kachhap scored an own goal in the 63rd minute. Thereafter, Kerala captain Usman made it 4-1 in the 72nd minute to take it beyond Railways’ reach. Soosanayakam did score another for Railways in the 86th minute but it came a bit too late.
In another match, Punjab and Mizoram played out a goalless draw at Tilak Maidan.
The scores
- Kerala 4 (Jobby Justin x 2, Deepak Kachhap-og, Usman) beat Railways 2 (Rajesh Soosanayakam x 2).
- Punjab 0 drew with Mizoram 0.