The Hindu : Sport / Football : Churchill keeps winning

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Sport

Sport - Football

Churchill keeps winning

Principal Correspondent

BANGALORE: Coca Cola Churchill Brothers, with three wins from as many matches, is knocking at the doors of the Elite Premier Division.

At the football stadium here on Tuesday, the Goan side struck an early goal against State Bank of Travancore (Thiruvananthapuram) and held on to it to move clear on the league table of the ONGC Cup second division NFL super league match.

Having scored two wins in its earlier outings, the Goan side needed just a win from its remaining encounters.

Much before the SBT defence could settle down came the Freddy Mascarenhas strike.

Off a long pass from P.S. Saneesh, Mascarenhas, who saw a narrow angle between the post and SBT custodian Jean Christian, found the target.

Despite some repeated raids, SBT— which is searching for its first win in three matches to stay in contention — could not beat the Churchill stopper and captain Osumanu Hussaini who stood rock-solid in front of the goal.

So dominant was the stopper that towards the later stages of the match none of the SBT forwards challenged Osumanu.

Due credit should be given to Syed Hussain, the Churchill wing-back, who did a splendid job of tackling the dangerous Abdul Hakeem.

SBT's Mohammed Haris, who worked tirelessly in the midfield, produced some admirable passes but were wasted by Martin John and Asif Shaheer.

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