Team Herald
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VASCO: Churchill Brothers FC registered their second win in a row under the new coach Derrick Pereira, after their 2-1 recovery against Mohun Bagan in the I-League encounter at Tilak Maidan, on Saturday.
Despite Prabir Das gave the visitors 24th minute lead, Anthony Wolfe and Chesterpoul Lyngdoh scored second goals to inflict season’s first defeat on the Mariners.
Derrick named an unchanged eleven from the home side’s 3-0 win over DSK Shivajians last weekend.
Churchill Brothers had the first few chances of the match in the initial minutes as Anthony Wolfe headed wide Brandon Fernandes’ free-kick that rebounded off the wall while another cross for Wolfe by Ansumana Kromah was intercepted well by Anas Edathodika.
Bagan eventually started making inroads of their own. In the 23rd minute, a good through ball by Duffy that Bikramjit Singh tried to cross for Jeje Lalpekhlua was thwarted by a defensive clearance by Adil Khan.
That was before the opener was scored by Bagan when Sony Norde got past Brandon on the left flank and off his pin-point cross, Prabir nodded past a hapless Naveen Kumar at the far corner of the post.
Churchill’s Bektur Talgat tried to reply with a firm shot from outside the box, but Debjit Majumder was behind it. The Bagan goalkeeper reacted well to hold the ball firmly.
A few minutes before half-time, there could have been an equaliser for Churchill. The curl from Brandon’s free-kick almost beat Debjit in goal who was going the wrong side until a last minute adjustment in his dive which was enough to keep the ball from entering his net.
Both goalkeepers were called into action before the hour mark in the second half as Debjit pulled off a fingertip save in the 54th minute to prevent Wolfe’s shot from the left from finding the far corner while on the other side, Duffy’s chested down Norde’s cross from the left for Jeje whose low shot was blocked by Naveen and the rebound was cleared by Rowilson before Duffy got on to it.
But in the 65th minute, Churchill scored the equaliser after Seriton’s clearance against Prabir landed favourably for Wolfe in the heart of the Bagan box and the Trinidad and Tobago striker calmly placed it past Debjit.
Minutes later, Brandon almost drove the hosts into the lead but he saw two attempts fail to hit the target including an overhead kick that connected sweetly from Chesterpoul Lyngdoh’s cross from the right.
But Churchill would get their go-ahead goal in the 74th minute, courtesy a defensive lapse by Eduardo Ferreira, who was otherwise having a good game. The Bagan centre-back failed to clear Brandon’s cross from the left and the loose ball was gracefully headed into the back of the net by Chesterpoul Lyngdoh.
Meanwhile, darkness engulfed the stadium when one of the generators overheated and resulted in the lights in the stadium failing. After about 40 minutes of stoppage for the generator to cool down, the match resumed.
