IMPHAL: Champions Minerva Punjab FC and Manipur's Neroca FC played out an exciting draw at the latter's home in Imphal's Khuman Lampak stadium, to deny both a chance to improve their league standings considerably.
The home-side dominated both possession and chances created and even got a penalty, but could not get past a solid Minerva defence.
The result meant that Neroca stayed at fourth place in the 12th Hero I-League standings with 15 points from nine games while Minerva moved up by one to be sixth after 10 games with 13 points to show.
The game maintained a high tempo throughout with both teams displaying an urgency to score.
Neroca however outscored the visitors 64-36 in possession, 12-5 in shots taken, 11-2 in corners and 4-2 in the shots on target count and while the game deserved a goal, there were none on the day.