Jubilant Punjab players celebrate after defeating Manipur in a pre-quarter final match of the Santosh Trophy, at the Salt Lake Stadium, on Thursday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: Former champions Punjab gave Manipur the boot when they defeated the team from Northeast 6-4 (4-2 in tie-breaker), in a pre-quarter final match of the Santosh Trophy, at the Salt Lake Stadium, on Thursday.

The match ended at 2-2 after 120 minutes. In the quarterfinal league, Punjab’s rivals will be Goa, Services and Karnataka.

Balraj Singh put Punjab ahead in the 15th minute while Ngouba Singh equalised in the 88th minute. In the 103rd minute R Vashum gave Manipur the lead, only to find Amandeep Batra restoring parity in the 115th minute.

In the tie-breaker, Samananda Singh and Syed Farid scored, while Naoba Singh and Subhas Singh missed for Manipur. For Punjab, Harpreet Singh, Parveen Kumar, Randeep Singh and Ravinder Singh scored while Balwant Singh bungled.

Manipur should blame themselves for this loss. They dictated the proceedings throughout and missed so many chances that after a point of time, one just stopped counting. It seemed Subhas Singh and R Vashum were competing against each other to see who misses more. Finally, the former East Bengal player ‘won the award’ when his shot was saved by Punjab goalkeeper Paramjit Singh who made amends in the tie-breaker after letting in a soft goal during the extra-time. R Vashum’s grounder did not have any sting and how Paramjit let it slip remained a mystery.

Fortunately for Punjab, Manipur went into a shell after that goal. Obviously, thinking that they can survive the next 17 minutes just like that. Punjab, sensing they have a chance, went into an offensive mode and were soon rewarded when Batra headed in the equaliser.

And when the match went into the tie-breaker, Manipur players with their shoulders drooping gave enough hint that they won’t survive for long. And rightly, when Ravinder Singh converted the fifth penalty, it was all over for the Vashums.

Earlier, former Mohun Bagan striker Akum Ao scored a double hattrick, as Assam blanked Himachal Pradesh 10-0, in a Cluster VII match at the Mohun Bagan ground. Akum scored once in the first half and pumped in five in the second half.

In another match of the same cluster, at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kerala defeated Uttarakhand 3-1. N. Sumesh (31st), MP Sakeer (65th) and .K. Javed (90+1) scored for the winners while Veer Singh Negi (69th) pulled one back for Uttarakhand.

Orissa began their campaign on a positive note beating Mizoram 3-1 in a Cluster VIII match. In another match of the same cluster, heavyweights Railways trounced Bihar 7-1 at the Howrah Municipal Stadium. Anthony Soren scored a hattrick.

TEAMS

Punjab: Paramjit Singh, Amandeep, Ravinder Singh, Harpreet Singh, Maninder Singh (Amandeep Batra 84), Balwant Singh, Balraj Singh (Parveen Kumar 55), Gurpreet Singh, Gurwinder Singh, Amandeep Singh (Rohit Kumar 76), Randeep Singh.

Manipur: Lalit Thapa, Syed Farid, Y.Raju, Samananda Singh, Ajith Kumar Singh (Jotin Singh), Bisheshwor Singh, Naoba Singh, R Vashum, Subhas Singh, Nilakumar Singh, Charan Rai (Ngouba Singh 71).

Referee: Biplab Poddar.