Churchill strike late to dash HASC’s hopes
Bangalore outfit forced to settle for a 1-1 draw, stay bottom
Hindustan Aeronautics Sports Club (HASC) conceded a late goal to split points with Churchill Brothers after a 1-1 draw in the 20th round of the I-League encounter at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.
Jagaba Amaba opened the scoring for HASC in eighth minute and the Bangalore outfit held on to the lead well into the second half. However, HASC’s resistance ended in the stoppage time when Roberto Mendes Silva found the net for Churchill.
HASC surprised their Goan opponents as they capitalised on Gouramangi Moirangthem’s lapse, Hamza slotting home in fine style after defender’s poor clearence from inside the box gifted the ball straight to the struggling striker.
Stunned by the early goal, Churchill regrouped and launched a series of attacks, even as the visitors made a desperate attempt to keep their citadel clean in the first half.
Churchill had a couple of clear chances to equalise but Binesh Balan and Roberto failed to score.
The visitors, who were kept on the defensive by Churchill throughout the match, came with a counter move in the dying minutes of the first half but Vinod Kumar failed to beat the ’keeper, who blocked his weak attempt at the goal after a move between RC Prakash and Hamza.
Churchill continued to waste chances galore with HASC ’keeper Pramod coming to his side’s rescue, as he made some daring saves to stop Henri and Roberto from scoring.
Roberto Silva finally found the equaliser in injury time, rifling home from the edge of the box.
Bottom-placed HASC, who face relegation, now have seven points in the 14-team league. Fourth-placed Churchill now have 34 points from 19 outings.
Lajong shock EB
Shillong Lajong came from behind to beat Kingfisher East Bengal 2-1 in a thrilling encounter at the J N Stadium in Shillong.
EB started confidently and opened the account in the fourth minute. Tolga Ozbey cut past Lajong’s defenders, worked his way ahead and scored past the goalkeeper to put EB ahead.
Lajong fought back and the North-East side was rewarded for their determination with skipper John Meyongar scoring the equaliser in the 12th minute. Four minutes later, Eugeneson Lyngdoh put Lajong netted the winner.
The rest of the match was a saga of missed chances. Lajong lie tenth with 27 points while EB, who have 35 points, are on third spot.
Bagan score
Mohun Bagan rallied from a goal deficit with two late strikes by Odafa Okolie to clinch a dramatic 2-1 victory over Mumbai FC and climb to the second spot of the I-League table with 37 points at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata.
Gbemene Friday gave Mumbai FC a 24th minute lead and the visitors looked to pull off a stunning upset. But their inexperience cost them dearly as two mistakes in less than eight minutes paved way for their defeat.
Mumbai FC centre back Dhanachandra Singh was the culprit as his wrong tackle earned Mohun Bagan a 72nd minute penalty to help Nigerian goal machine Odafa open his account.
In the 80th minute, Odafa capitalised on a goalkeeping misjudgement by Sanjiban Ghosh to earn the winner.
