Churchill Brothers holds Agragami

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, MARCH 5. Tollygunge Agragami squandered chances galore against Churchill Brothers to draw the National Football League match goal-less at the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium here on Monday. Playing at home, the draw was a setback for Tollygunge, for it collected its ninth point from 11 matches.

Churchill took its points tally to 15 from 11 games and should consider itself lucky to have split points. Tollygunge's main problem was its poor attack where Emeka Achilelesu and Abdullatif Serike were unable to deliver the goods. The home side dominated the game thoroughly, especially in the first half. Tollygunge did everything right till the striking zone.

Churchill's defence did well by controlling the rival forwards with the final tackle. Helping the defenders were the Tollygunge forwards themselves with their shoddy attempts, poor ball control and lack of imagination.

The Goan team woke up to reality in the second half with some purposeful play.

The team saw the ball more and made a few concerted efforts towards the rival goal without much success.

Tollygunge, which normally plays a defensive game, changed tactics today to play aggressive, attacking game.

A couple of times the Tollygunge forwards found themselves inside the rival box without any challenge but failed to beat the rival custodian.

Bhabani Mohanty moved up the flank and floated one inside the box where Sasthi Duley volleyed wide. If this attempt coming at the 20th minute was not costly, Serike's failure to head home off a Mohanty cross six minutes later was galling. Ten minutes later Serike was involved in another costly miss, this time failing to contact a header off Duley's measured centre.

Weathering all the attempts, Churchill Brothers put together a few attempts later in the second half. The best came in the 71st minute when Francis Silveria shot from top of the box. It flew inches over the bar.

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Section  : Sport
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