Nepal Police Club (NPC) successfully defended the Women’s National League title following a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Eastern Region in their last match of the super league on Monday.

Needing an outright victory over a team that was already out of the title race, a brace from Niru Thapa sealed the title for NPC. The victory saw NPC also pocket a cash purse of Rs 200,000. Second-placed Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) got Rs 100,000.

NPC, TAC and Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club were tied on six points each after the completion of super league but the holders reigned supreme on head-to-head goal difference between the teams concerned.

NPC had scored five and conceded four in their two collective games against TAC and APF. Army had scored four and conceded four, while APF had three goals for them and four in the deficit. The goals scored and conceded against Eastern Region between all three teams were not taken into account.

In the match, Thapa gave NPC a dream start scoring in the sixth minute but Eastern did not give up. They managed to contain NPC to the single goal in the first half before Hina Rana levelled the scores in the 70th minute.

Just as it seemed the match was heading towards a draw and deprive NPC of title, the defending champions earned a penalty in the 85th minute. Thapa made no mistake converting from the spot. NPC coach Sandesh Shrestha admitted they had a tough road to title. “The match turned out to be tougher than we had expected. Although we dominated the game, we were not able to score because we were under pressure and Eastern Region had nothing to lose,” said Shrestha.

Lila Lamgade (goalkeeper) of TAC, Ghim Kumar Gurung (defender) and Shrestha (coach) of NPC took the individual honour along with Anita Basnet (midfielder) and Sabitra Bhandari (striker) of APF. They grabbed a cash purse of Rs 25,000 each.