In a display that was as fluent as it was enjoyable, Prayag United FC destroyed Pune FC 5-1 in a fourth round match of the I-League under lights at the Salt Lake Stadium, here on Saturday.
In the process Brazilan Joshimar Martins helped himself to a hat-trick.
Prayag United opened the goal glut in the sixth minute. A long throw-in was cleared by the Pune defence and the ball came to captain Lalkamal Bhowmick well outside the box from where the central mid-fielder found the net beating custodian Shahinlal.
Eleven minutes later, Joshimar found the net after dribbling past a defender following Vincent's forward pass.
Pune pulled one back through Izumi Arata in the 29{+t}{+h} minute when his long-ranger eluded a diving Somnath Khanra under the Prayag bar.
Arata, who has applied for an Indian passport, and Pune's best striker Jeje Lalpekhlua were completely bottled up by the two stoppers Deepak Mondal and Bello Razag. Joshimar then found a long lob from Bello upfield.
As Shahinlal challenged Joshimar, the Brazilian lobbed the ball over his head into the net for his second and his team's third goal.
In the 77th minute, Bello's freekick into the Pune penalty area came to Joshimar who quickly passed it to well placed Vincent who did the rest.
There reverses completely took the wind out of Pune's sail as Prayag United continued to dominate.
The home side completed the rout when Joshimar placed home a grounder three minutes later. This was Pune FC's first away match and its first loss as well. It has won one and drawn two so far.
Prayag, which had drawn all of its three previous games, showed its class under coach Sanjay Sen to win its first match.
