Aral secured a 1:0 victory over Kattakurgan in the Pro-League A's regular season match on Thursday. The result keeps the hosts in first place while the visitors remain in sixth after seventeen games played.
R. Kalmagambetov produced the decisive moment when he converted a penalty in the fiftieth minute. It was a tight encounter where the home side needed that break to separate them from the visitors.
Kattakurgan's position worsened when K. Sattorov received a second yellow card and was sent off in the sixty-second minute. The visitors had to play the final twenty-eight minutes with ten men and could not find an equaliser.
By then Aral had extended their unbeaten run to five matches and moved five points clear at the top of the table. Kattakurgan stay twelve points behind the leaders with a game in hand on the teams above them.
The win gives Aral some momentum after their 1:2 defeat last weekend. Kattakurgan's form has slipped with two losses in their last two games, adding to their frustration after being reduced to nine men on the pitch.