Will the National League Football title race be a three-way battle? Probably. That's pretty much what it looks like as the competition enters its fourth round.

So far, three teams have won all three of their matches. The last of these is APF. They defeated Sankata at the Dashrath Stadium to maintain their 100% record, with nine points. 

The teams with the maximum nine points are Pokhara's Laligurans Association and Machhindra Football Club. At least they have shown similar results. Despite this, APF coach Rajendra Tamang is not happy. For one, he does not believe that his team is in the league title, but rather he has complaints about the performance of his players. 

While presenting himself to the media after defeating Sankata, he said, "The performance of our players is like that of grassroots players. Every time, instructions should be given on the touchline. They lack discipline in the game, whether it is for the referee or the opponent."

Perhaps coach Tamang has spoken the bitter truth, which kind of problem is not only in his team, but in everyone. Pradeep Lama and Yuvraj Khadka were the goal scorers for APF against Sankata. Pradeep opened the scoring in the 29th minute, followed by Yuvraj in the 51st minute. Ganesh Hamal scored a goal in the 81st minute for Sankata, but it did not have much impact on the game. This is Sankata's fourth match and they have only five points. This is also their first defeat. Sankata has also played two draws. What is their plan now? Sankata coach Rabindra Shilakar said, "Right now we are more dependent on age group players. When the time comes to bring in more players, that will be our real team. That will be the real Sankata team."

Church Boys' first win

Martyrs' Memorial League 'A' Division winners Church Boys came into their third match and won their first win. Both possible goals against Sankata came in the second half. Nigerian player Abuyomi Fakunle was the hero in that win. He scored two goals and assisted on the other goal. After Fakunle scored the first goal in the 53rd minute, Milan Rai added another goal in the 61st minute with his pass. Fukanle scored the third goal in the 68th minute. With this result, Church Boys have four points from three games. Jawalakhel, on the other hand, was limited to three points in three games.

After the game, Church Boys assistant coach Ramesh Dangal said, ‘I think our team will now find a rhythm. It seems that the team is starting to get coordinated. That is why we were able to weave at least nine-ten good attacks today.’ Similarly, Jawalakhel coach Sunil Shrestha responded, ‘Today’s result was not expected. Most of our players are young and they lack

experience. That is why this is the problem. We will try to perform well in the upcoming games.’

NRT moving forward

There is another team involved in the title race and that is NRT. After losing their first game, NRT has won its third consecutive victory and now it also has nine points. What will be good for NRT is that they have kept a clean sheet for the second consecutive match. The only player to score against Friends was Ashish Gurung. He scored in the 67th minute.