Last year's semi-finalists Punjab lived up to their billing as one of the contenders for the coveted Santosh Trophy crown beating a below-par Jammu and Kashmir 1-0 in their Group B tie of the North Zone at the Ambedkar Stadium here Sunday.
Courtesy the result, Punjab now have six points from two games while Jammu and Kashmir remain on three from as many matches.
Left winger Gurpreet Singh scored the only goal of the match in the 38th minute.
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Receiving a neat pass from substitute striker Ranjit Singh after the duo exchanged passes on the left inside channel, Gurpreet tucked his effort nicely into the bottom left corner.
Jammu and Kashmir had two good chances to equalise in the second half but centre forward Prem Kumar and substitute Toufeeq Ahmed shot wide and over.
Punjab were the better team throughout the match stitching together passes in midfield and creating more chances than their counterparts.