Pakistan Premier Football League: Bukhsh stars as Navy thrash Baloch FC

Chaman FC rue shifting of matches to Karachi.

KARACHI:

Pakistan Navy cruised past Baloch FC in their Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL) match with an impressive 4-0 win in Islamabad yesterday.

Asif Bukhsh was the standout performer of the match with a brace while Sajjad Ahmed and Abdul Haq were the other scorers in the rout. Elsewhere, Muslim FC continued their good form with a 1-0 win over HBL. Striker Zabihullah scored the only goal of the match in the 51st minute.

Meanwhile, having being forced to play their matches in Karachi due to the security situation in Chaman, Muslim FC player Saeed Ahmad rued not having the backing of home supporters in their matches.

“In Chaman we have 90 teams playing tournaments every month,” Ahmed told The Express Tribune. “Although the weather over there is dry and the pitches are not good but people come out to watch. Here we had hardly 300 people at the stadium. In Chaman, it’s in thousands and that helps us. However, we are happy about the arrangements here. The pitches are a consolation.”

In the third match of the day, Shahid Zameer turned out to be the match-winner for Army as his goal helped them register a 1-0 win against PAF. Masroor Ahmed was named as the player of the match for his efforts in midfield.

KRL leave for AFC cup

Meanwhile, defending PPFL champions KRL left for Tajikistan to participate in the second round of the AFC Presidents’ Cup.

They are playing as the top club of the country in the tournament and will face Palestine Youth FC on September 26 in their opening match. Although captain Samar Ishaq is optimistic about the team’s form, he said that it will be a difficult task to reach to the semi-finals of the President’s Cup, where they will be playing three matches.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2012.