One of the premier professional football club of Kashmir, Lone Star Kashmir FC has started its campaign in this season second division I-League with 3-2 win over hosts ARA FC at Ahmedabad, Gujarat on Friday.
It was first match of the new second division I-League season for the Kashmir and it notched up an important away win against a tough side ARA FC. At the end of first half, Kashmir FC were leading by 1-0 goals with Nigerian striker Hamzah being the scorer.
In second half, home side bounced back strongly and gave tough fight to the visitors. However, in the end Kashmir FC prevailed by 3-2 margin with Hamzah scoring his second and Atinder Mani also chipping with a winning goal. The second decision league will go into break because of the Santosh Trophy tournament. Kashmir FC will be playing its next match on February 24 in Srinagar.
Lone Star Kashmir FC was the first ever club from J&K to play in second division I-League and even went on to get close to I-League qualification on several occasions. However, due to financial issues the club got in backslide with Real Kashmir taking up the charge. In a short time Real Kashmir FC has turned into one of the biggest clubs of Country.
Currently Lone Star Kashmir FC is playing under the guidance of star footballer of J&K and India, Ishfaq Ahmad. He says that Club is under revival but financial issues are still there. “It is no secret that Lone Star Kashmir FC brought in professional football to J&K but with the time due to financial issue club faced many difficulties. However, its owners and little help from J&K Football Association, worked hard to keep club running and playing in second division league,” Ishfaq Ahmad said.
“Today’s win will act as real morale booster for this new side and will help team in the coming fixtures,” he said.
Ishfaq lamented the treatment meted out to the club as it faced difficulties in getting training facilities back home.
“We hardly got chance to train before coming here to play our first match of the season. The club was asked to pay for training facilities at TRC Turf ground which was real irony. Somehow we got to train for few days but preparations before the season didn’t went like we had planned,” he added.