TEAM HERALD
sports@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Roberto Mendes da Silva‘s injury time goal saved Churchill Brothers from a certain defeat against bottom placed and relegation threatened Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Sports Club, Bangalore and the teams ended in a 1-1 draw in a 20th round I-league match at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda, Saturday. Churchill were trailing 0-1 at half time.
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HAL played a compact, attacking game with central midfielders Malemngangba Meetei and Vinod Kumar hardly allowing Churchill to generate any attack especially in the first-half. Their defenders also did well to deny striker Henri Anchouet, Binesh Balanand and playmaker Beto space, as Churchill failed to make any headway with the long ball as well.
HAL started on a positive note and forged ahead in the 12th minute when midfielder Vinod received a measured pass from Rohit Chand and flicked it over D. Ravanan inside the rival box. International central defender Gourmangi Singh could have intercepted it but his half-hearted clearance struck Hamza who sped into the rival penalty area and slotted past Churchill goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya. Two minutes later, Churchill Brothers had an opportunity to neutralise the lead but Binesh Balan fired a right footer which crashed on the crossbar.
Churchill failed to take the advantage of a depleted HAL to pull off a win. HAL were without key players – Feni, Biju Kumar and Gautam Debnath but they still managed to put up a good fight. They defended stoutly to deny Churchill a winning goal in the second half.
Churchill goalkeeper Arindam came to his side rescue by collecting a fierce cross from Meiti.
Churchill had a couple of scoring opportunities but striker Henri failed to guide his shot after Lenny Rodrigues put him on a platter in the 40th minute. Later, Beto’s weak shot went straight into the hands of HAL goalkeeper P Pramod. HAL nearly doubled the lead in the 44th minute when hardworking striker Hamza found R C Prakash inside into the rival penalty area. The last named essayed a fine pass for Vinod Kumar whose snap shot hit the leg of Churchill goalkeeper Arindam.
Earlier, HAL suffered a blow when reliable defender Liliyan Keneth suffered an injury and was replaced by Rohit Chand.
Churchill, desperate for an equaliser, went all out in the second half and coach Alfred Fernandes brought in fresh legs. They nearly succeeded soon after the break when Beto found Opera who raced towards the rival box and sent a fine cross to Henri, who turned around but his try hit the HAL goalkeeper.
Churchill had an excellent chance subsequently, but HAL goalkeeper Pramod came to his side’s rescue. He was adjudged man-of-the-match for his heroics.
Churchill created scoring opportunities but Israil Gurung and Raju Yumnam failed to beat the rival goalkeeper. Churchill were unlucky in the 85th minute when substitute Mohammed Rafi’s goal bound shot was saved on the goalline by Bijoy Das.
When the match looked to be drifting towards a HAL win, R C Prakash made a blunder. Instead of clearing the ball, he lost it to Denzil Franco, who without wasting time relayed it to Rafi and the last named passed to Beto to unleash a right footer which beat the HAL goalkeeper.
With this draw, Churchill collected 34 points from 19 encounters while HAL took their tally to 7 points from 20 matches.
Churchill Bros stop-gap coach Alfred Fernandes did not appear to be a happy man. He did scent three points as he knew HAL were going through a bad patch. Somehow
his boys continued to chase their elusive victory after their forwards muffed umpteen scoring chances. Alfred heaped praises on the visiting goalkeeper.
The quality of officiating was the main talking point at the post-match briefing by HAL manager M Muralidharan. He expressed his unhappiness over referee A Rowan. Muralidharan felt the referee robbed his team two points as he allowed the Churchill to score the equaliser after the expiry of injury time. He said that his team was always a victim at the hands of referees. “It was definitely our best performance and we could have won the match had not the referee added time in the injury space,” said the crestfallen manager.
