Churchill Brothers came back from behind to end Mohun Bagan’s unbeaten run with a 2-1 win in the 12th round of the Hero I-League football tournament, here today.
Prabir Das 24th minute goal gave Bagan the lead before Anthony Wolfe (65th) and Chesterpoul Lyndoh (74th) struck for the hosts to register the stunning hard-fought victory.
Churchill Brothers’ second successive win took their tally to 12 points from as many matches. The Goan side is now placed sixth in the standings.
Mohun Bagan, which suffered its first defeat, remained on third place with 21 points from 10 matches, six points behind table topper East Bengal.
Play was interrupted in the 80th minute after floodlights went off and it was total black out for 40 minutes.
The referee R Venkatesh resumed play after 40 minutes when the floodlights restored and Churchill Brothers did well to held on its lead.
Churchill Brothers looked a transformed side after Derrick Pereira took over as head coach today. The host fielded an unchanged side from the team that played last against DSK Shivajians.
Mohun Bagan, which took time to settle down, slowly made dangerous inroads and had two clear chances to surge ahead but first Prabir and latter Darryl Duffy failed to get past rival keeper Navin Kumar.
However, Churchill Brothers’ citadel finally fell in the 24th minute.
ony Norde, who was kept quite by Chesterpoul Lyngdoh, made a run on the left and send a perfect cross into the box for Prabir who leaped high in between two rival defenders to head the ball into the net to give Bagan a 1-0 lead at half time.
Churchill Brothers, who controlled the proceeding in the first half, nearly found the equaliser in the 40th minute when Brandon Fernandes’ pile driver from a free kick was kept away by Bagan goalkeeper Debjit Majumdar in nick of time.
Churchill Brothers continued in the same fashion in the second half but the team found keeper Debjit Majumdar a tough customer under the bar to beat as he brought off a diving save off angular low drive from Anthony Wolfe from inside the box.
Bagan retaliated and nearly increased their lead in the 60th minute when Darryl Duffy chested down Sony Norde’s cross from the left for Jeje, whose low shot was blocked by Churchill’s keeper Navin and the rebound was cleared away by defender Rowilson.
Churchill’s effort finally paid off as Bagan’s defence crumbled under pressure to concede two goals in a span of nine minutes.
In the 64th minute, Churchill’s defender Seriton Fernandes saw off defender Anas and Eduardo, who failed to clear the ball and Anthony Wolfe sliced between two defenders to find the back of the net.
Eduardo Ferreira, who otherwise did well to defend the citadel, failed to clear Brandon Fernandes cross from the left and Chesterpoul Lyndhoh darted in to head the ball into the net in the 74th minute to give Churchill its second win under new coach Derrick Pereira.
Comments
SHARE