The Hindu : Tollygunge Agragami holds Churchill Brothers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 10, 2002

Sport

Sport - Football

Tollygunge Agragami holds Churchill Brothers

KOLKATA DEC. 9. Tollygunge Agragami failed to make use of the home advantage as it managed to hold a slothful Churchill Brothers 1-1 in its fifth round match of the Oil PSU seventh National Football League here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Monday.

In a great show of character and determination, Agragami had defeated the mega-budget Mumbai outfit Mahindra United 3-2 in the last match at the same venue on November 21 but it could not repeat the result against Churchill Brothers.

As far as points are concerned, Agragami netted four points from a win, a draw and a loss (against East Bengal) while Churchill Brothers could tally only two points from two draws and a loss. Agragami seemed to pick up right from where it left against Mahindra and the team did well working on a defensive ploy before gradually building up its own attacks.

Agragami, constrained by a conservative purse, presented a batch of relative green horns and a few Nigerians against the Goan giant.

Churchill Brothers began on the offensive getting its thrustful Nigerian striker Yakubu Yusif to breach the home defence. While the Agragami defence did well containing the other Churchill forward Kasif Jamal, Yakubu used his size to a good measure powering inside the opponent box on a few occasions.

The goal however, remained elusive as the Churchill striker was wayward on couple of occasions while his third try saw the Agragami stopper-back Debkumar Shasmal come in the way with a goalline clearance.

Agragami looked to work on counter attacks but none could really spell the danger having the first- half ending barren.

The second session began with a bang asChurchill Brothers struck the lead in the 49th minute through a penalty. Agragami midfielder Moses Owira handled the ball inside the box while trying to clear a Yakubu free-kick that rebounded off the crossbar. The burly Churchill striker took his turn successfully scoring from the spot. The visitor's joy was, however, shortlived as Agragami fought back and restored parity three minutes later. The home goal resulted from a brilliant move down the right flank as the wing-half Mehtab Hussain sprinted forward before essaying a low cross inside the Churchill box. The ball swerved to beat the Churchill custodian Edward Ansah, reaching Owira, who was lurking close-by. The Agragami medio found his tap coming off the crosspiece as Ashim Biswas sneaked in to slot home the rebound.

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