Cuttack, Dec 21 (IANS) Indian Arrows stunned eighth placed Gokulam Kerala FC 1-0 in an I-League clash at the Barabati Stadium here on Friday.
Amarjit Singh Kiyam scored the winner in the 66th minute via a penalty to help Floyd Pinto's team to their second win of the season.
With this win, Arrows jumped up a place to be in the 9th position while Gokulam are placed eighth in the points table.
Bino George, head coach for Gokulam, started with an amped up attack through new recruit Rohit Mirza. Gokulam started on an attacking note, but Arrows stood strong to thwart most of their forays.
The hosts made their way past into the Kerala box quite a few times, but their lack of creativity in finding the finishing touch denied them a lead.
Rahul KP, Boris Singh, Rahim Ali played interesting football, but could not maintain the tempo of their runs once inside the Kerala box, losing the ball more often than not to Gokulam's Ghanian defender Daniel Addo.
The first 45 minutes came to a close with no goals being scored on either end.
The second half began with Gokulam showing their intent to gather a much needed lead but the Indian Arrows defence line stood like a wall denying the visitors any chance to find the back of the net.
Gokulam continued with their attacks and did get some real close chances to score, but could not convert any in their favour.
A free kick by Gokulam's Brazilian mid-fielder Felipe Castro in the 63rd minute that could have easily gone into the Arrows net was cheaply missed by Daniel Addo's misplaced header.
This was the closest the visitors came to scoring. Soon after, on the counter a silly foul inside the Gokulam box by Feliipe Castro on Vikram Pratap Singh ended up in the hosts being awarded a penalty shot.
Arrows captain Amarjit Singh made no mistake in taking the penalty shot, ensuring the hosts drew first blood in the 66th minute, scoring his second goal of the season.
