KARACHI, Nov 6: Kaleemullah found his scoring boots after missing a raft of chances in the previous games to help champions Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) down Karachi Port Trust 2-0 in the Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL) here on Wednesday.
Kaleem, last season’s top-scorer, scored in KRL’s 3-1 victory against Wapda in their opening game but subsequently failed to find the net in the two-time defending champions’ 3-0 win against Afghan FC and a 1-1 draw against Muslim FC.
It was a matter of time before he found the back of the net and it was KPT who were at the end of his lethal finishing.
KRL head coach Tariq Lutfi was unimpressed by his frontmen wasting chances in their draw against Muslim FC and it looked as if it would be the same story against KPT.
But Kaleem settled their nerves when he ghosted past the KPT defence, picking up a pass at the edge of the box before beating a defender and rounding the goalkeeper to roll the ball into an empty net in the 28th at the KPT Stadium.
Star winger Mohammad Adil was then guilty of missing two superb chances when he shot wide with just the goalkeeper to beat.
Kaleemullah made sure of the points when he dribbled past four defenders before finishing with aplomb just before the hour mark.
“It is great to be amongst the goals,” Kaleem told Dawn. “It’s a long, hard season and I try to score on as many chances as I can. Hopefully I can keep scoring and guide the team to the third straight title.”
Lutfi, though, was unimpressed by his side’s wastefulness in front of goal.
“It is a good win but we must look at the number of chances we’re missing because it might come back to haunt us in tougher games,” he said.
Defeat left KPT on 21 points and they slipped to fourth spot in the standings after Pakistan Navy came back from a goal down to beat Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) 2-1 in Wednesday’s other game.
After a goalless first-half, Zeeshan Ali gave PIA the lead in the 56th minute at the Korangi Baloch Stadium but Navy hit back just six minutes later through Asif Bux.
Abdul Haq netted the winner seven minutes from time as Navy moved to 22 points, one behind second-placed Muslim FC and nine behind leaders Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).
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