Churchill face injury-hit Bagan
HERALD SPORTS DESK
Panjim, Feb 25: Mohun Bagan will meet Churchill Brothers tomorrow in a round XVI tie of I-League at Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata.
Churchill Brothers are currently in the 3rd position with 29 points, 2 points behind East Bengal and 5 points behind league leaders Salgaocar. Mohun Bagan on the other hand are on sixth with 21 points.
In the first leg, Churchill Brothers beat Mohun Bagan 2-0 in Goa. Odafa Onyeka Okolie who scored both the goals in that match is still doubtful for the return leg. If Odafa fails to make it in the starting XI, Kayne Vincent and Jerry Boima will pair up upfront.
Goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya’s shoulder injury will also bar him from taking part in tomorrow’s key encounter. Steven Dias inclusion has helped Churchill Brothers a lot and he will be the key player for them along with Kayne Vincent who has already scored eight goals. Odafa-less Churchill did not have any problem in scoring as they have defeated Chirag United and JCT 5-3 and 3-1 respectively.
Churchill Brothers coach, Vincent Subramaniam said, “We will play for three points but will have to be careful. In the first leg, I feel we were lucky to get full points as Mohun Bagan really played well against us and dominated the match for most part.”
Mohun Bagan will miss many players in tomorrow’s match. Anwar Ali, Jose Barreto, Manish Maithani, Souvik Chakraborty, Surkumar Singh, Sk. Azim are all injured, while Ishfaq Ahmed is out due to one match automatic suspension. N. Mohanraj took looks doubtful for the tie. Subhash Bhowmick will take the final decision whether Mohanraj will play in left back position or he will opt for Dhanarajan after assessing the situation tomorrow morning.
In the absence of Anwar Ali, it will be either Sagram Mandi or Rakesh Masih who will join Deepak Mandal in the central defence.
Muritala Ali and Chidi Edeh will be the two strikers in the team. In the last match, both of them failed to convert some easy chances and thus Mohun Bagan lost two points against HAL and the match ended 1-1.
In fact, Mohun Bagan have failed to win their last four matches against Air India, East Bengal, Pune FC and HAL; all the matches have ended in draws.
Technical Director, Subhash Bhowmick said, “We will miss many key players in tomorrow’s match but we have got substitutes and will try our level best to get full points from tomorrow’s match, but in the last few matches we have been missing very easy chances to score. Hopefully, our conversion will be better tomorrow.”
In absence of so many key players of Mohun Bagan, Churchill Brothers are clear favourites for tomorrow’s match.
