Services won its sixth Santosh Trophy title with a 1-0 victory over home side Punjab, thanks to a second-half strike by Bikash Thapa at the Guru Nanak Stadium here Sunday.
With this victory, the side has ended the campaign without losing a single match.
Incidentally, the last time Services played in the Santosh Trophy final was in 2015, at the same venue and against the same opposition, a match that it won 5-4 on penalties after it ended 0-0 post extra time.
It was a somewhat slow start to the game as both the sides looked to measure each other up before committing themselves.
Punjab had more initiative during the opening exchanges, managing to get a few shots on goal.
However, as the match wore on, Services started to gain more composure and built its attacks down the flanks. This wing-play almost resulted in a goal right at the end of the first half.
Bikash Thapa was played through on the right as he entered the box, sold a dummy to a Punjab defender and crossed to Harikrishna AU who scuffed his shot.
After the changeover, Services came out with a clear intent to go ahead in the game.
Again, it was its wing-play that helped it. Lallawmkima found himself on the edge of the Punjab area with the ball.
He squared it to Thapa, who slotted it into the bottom corner. A shirtless celebration meant that Thapa had to go into the referee’s books.
That goal forced Punjab to look for the equaliser, and striker Vikrant Singh came close with around 15 minutes of regulation time to go. Turning in the centre-circle, he spotted that the Services keeper Vishnu was off his line, and chipped the ball towards goal.
The ball eventually hit the cross-bar and went out of play.