Vijayan scored in the 111th minute

Faridabad: Ten years ago in Jabalpur in 1996, Raman Vijayan scored a golden goal to give Bengal the Santosh Trophy against Goa. The same year, he struck a goal under similar circumstances to steer East Bengal to Federation Cup glory over Dempo in Calcutta.

Today, Raman Vijayan may not be the same player he was in the mid-nineties, but hasn’t lost the habit of keeping the energy alive to do the needful in extra time. On Friday, in the Santosh Trophy pre-quarter-finals, he made all the difference between Tamil Nadu and Delhi at the Sector-12 Stadium here.

The 1-0 victory gave Tamil Nadu a place in the quarter final league to be played in Gurgaon from October 14. Like Raman Vijayan, two other Calcutta-based players were instrumental in Tamil Nadu’s victory. While Raman Vijayan remained a consistent scorer, D. Ravanan and Kulothungan worked overtime to see their team through.

The all-important goal came in the 111th minute after Delhi were able to keep a rampaging Tamil Nadu at bay in regulation time. Delhi custodian Vikrant Sharma made some spectacular saves, including a penalty by Anthony, but was finally beaten by Raman Vijayan’s clever touch. The move was initiated by Ravanan on the right and Kulothugan made the final through pass.

In the other pre-quarter-final played at Gurgaon, Karnataka finally ended Chhattisgarh’s golden run with a 5-3 victory via tie-breaker. Chhattisgarh, who ousted Manipur in the cluster match, gave a torrid time to the former champions, holding them 1-1 till the extra time.

Chhattisgarh shot ahead in the 14th minute through Ramchandra Murmu before international N.S. Manju restored parity at the stroke of the half time.

In the tie-breaker, while J. Murali, Xavier Vijay Kumar, B. Prakash and Kuttimani scored for Karnataka, Deepangshu Majumdar and P. Krishna Naidu converted for the losers.

The eight quarter finalists are: Goa, Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala, Bengal, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.