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Mumbai, 27 May 2010Mahindra United sign off on a winning note, beat JCT 2-1 at home

Mumbai, May 27: Mahindra United, one of the premier football clubs in the country bid farewell to Indian football on a bright note as they chalked out a hard-fought victory in their concluding fixture of the I-League played at the Cooperage ground here on Thursday.

Determined to round off their campaign on a high while playing in front of their home crowd for the final time, Mahindra United who needed to win and keep their second place hopes alive attained the maximum three points by getting the better of mid-table team JCT by a 2-1 margin.

This 26th round fixture, where overall the quality of finishing was hardly up to the mark, Mahindra United who had performed extremely well in the first phase and early part of the second leg, held off a determined second half challenge from the Punjab outfit to come through and put an end to their recent run of poor results.

In their quest of gaining the second position, Mahindra United though did their part of winning their final match, however, now have to contend with either third or fourth spot following the result of another final round match in Goa held today where Pune FC (42 points) shared points with already crowned champions Dempo by playing out a 1-1 draw.

Turning out for their final game, Mahindra United who had played out a goalless draw with JCT in the first leg, enjoyed a two nil lead at half-time with goals from central midfielder Sukhwinder Singh and winger Paresh Shivalkar while N.P. Pradeep, who wore the captains armband was adjudged the man-of-the-match for his fairly solid work in the heart of the defence.

Meanwhile, JCT who have struggled on their travels, generally looked good with their approach play from the wider areas but lacked the end product, reduced the margin very early in the second half through Henry Ezeh from a set-piece situation.

Mahindra United, who earlier were in contention for the honors before losing their way at a critical stage in the title race, with the help of this victory have currently moved into the third position with 41 points but can slip into the fourth place if last years winners Churchill Brothers (40 points) defeat relegation-threatened Air India on Friday.

Unable to muster a win in their last three games, if Churchill ended up dropping points against the airmen then Mahindra United would claim the third place as they have a better goal difference than the Goan outfit. A win for Churchill will see them finish as runners-up in the 14-team league, which culminates tomorrow.