KARACHI: Chaman’s Afghan FC leapfrogged to the third spot after inflicting a 1-0 defeat on Habib Bank Limited (HBL) while KESC also beat Police with a similar margin in their matches of the 8th Pakistan Premier Football League held at the Sadiq Shaheed Stadium in Quetta on Friday, 14 Oct 2011.
The match between Afghan FC and Habib Bank turned out to a tough affair that ended ultimately with the victory of the former when Himat Khan scored for them in the 88th minute. The triumph helped Afghan FC inflate their tally to 32 from 15 games, taking an edge over Habib Bank on goal-difference who also have 32 points from 19 games.
Habib Bank manager Yousuf Khan termed partial refereeing as sole cause for his team’s defeat.
“The standard of refereeing was extremely poor. When just two minutes were left, Afghan FC player pushed our goalkeeper and thus he could not grab the ball properly and it rolled slowly into the net. The oppositions were playing rough game but the scared former FIFA referee Abdul Sattar Badeni was not giving any foul. The performances of the assistant referees were also far from satisfactory,” Yousuf told ‘The News’ after the match.
“With such type of refereeing the sport could not be developed. We were really in command but in the end the goal that came in extremely ugly way damaged our position,” Yousuf lamented.
Meanwhile, in another tough game, KESC overcame newly promoted Police 1-0 to stretch their points tally to 31 from 18 meetings.
After a barren first half, former international defender Akbar Ali scored the lone goal for the winners on penalty in the 74th minute.
The loss left Police reeling at 15 points from 16 appearances.
Today’s fixtures: Army v PAF (Municipal Stadium, Rawalpindi), Baloch FC v NBP (Sadiq Shaheed Stadium, Quetta), Muslim FC v KPT (Sadiq Shaheed Stadium, Quetta).