Sunday , April 28 2024

Mumbai FC steal all points on Churchill Brothers I-League return!

Mumbai FC continue their winning spree in the ongoing I-League 2016-17 after a comeback victory against Churchill Brothers SC as they scored a late winner to win 2-1 in their match at the Tilak Maidan in Goa today.

Brandon Fernandes gave Churchill Brothers an early lead with a beautifully taken free-kick before Victorino Fernandes had levelled things in the first half. Mumbai FC scored a 92nd-minute winner through substitute Karan Sawhney who missed a penalty earlier in the second half as Santosh Kashyap’s men made it two wins in as many games.

Going into the match, the biggest change for the Red Machines was the introduction of former Trinidad & Tobago international Anthony Wolfe who led the Churchill Brothers attacking with Brandon Fernandes dropping in just behind him.

The home side used a 4-4-1-1 formation while Santosh Kashyap decided to used a 4-1-4-1 formation with Mumbai FC side looking to continue from their 1-0 win over DSK Shivajians in the first match.

Alfred Fernandes’ men had the best possible start when they opened the scoring in the third minute when Pratik Chowdhury conceded a free kick just outside the box after he brought down Churchill Brothers winger Clifford Miranda who was trying to make his way into the box.

The foul proved to be costly as Brandon Fernandes curled a beautiful free-kick past Laxmikant Kattimani to draw first blood. The Goan midfielder took two short strides and with very little backlift managed to get the ball dipping low into the far corner.

Trailing after just three minutes, Mumbai FC started growing into the game and they came agonisingly close in the 11th minute when their midfielder Siam Hanghal tried a pile-driver shot from 30-35 yards out which hit the underside of the bar and went out of danger.

Santosh Kashyap replaced Farukh Choudhary with the pacy winger Nikhil Kadam to offer more width to stage a fightback.

Rowilson Rodrigues hesitated with a header clearance which allowed Victorino Fernandes to pounce on the error and slotted the ball past Priyant Singh to make it level pegging in the 34th minute. Mumbai FC finished the half stronger as they managed to get themselves back into the game as the half finished 1-1.

Churchill Brothers looked to take the set-piece route in their search of a second goal as Brandon was causing the Mumbai FC defence all sorts of problems with a series of deadly corners.

Both teams made substitutions at the half-way mark of the second half with coach Alfred replacing Clifford with Anthony D’Souza while Mumbai FC skipper Steven Dias was taken off for Karan Sawhney.

All this was about to change when the referee awarded a penalty to Mumbai FC as Churchill Brothers defender Adil Khan pushed Hitesh Sharma inside the box in the 78th minute. Young Sawhney stepped up to take the penalty, but his weak effort was comfortably saved by Priyant diving on his right.

However, Sawhney atoned for his earlier miss in added time. Thoi Singh managed to run down the right flank before picking out an unmarked Sawhney in the middle and the youngster guided the ball past Sawhney to break hearts of the home side.

by I-League Media

About Arunava Chaudhuri

Check Also

Delhi FC beat East Bengal FC in 2-0 RFDL victory!

Delhi FC put on a quality performance as they secured a 2-0 victory against East …