Sesa FA hold Churchill Brothers in Goa Pro League

The stalemate means the academy boys have remained unbeaten in the league.

Sesa Football Academy and Churchill Brothers Sports Club shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw in the Goa Professional League at Duler Stadium on Sunday.

Churchill Brothers, who defeated Panjim Footballers in their previous game made four changes to their squad as Rajender Bairola, Aaron Bareto, Sadik Shaikh and Kamran Farooque found their names in the starting XI. On the other hand, Sesa coach Charles Dias also made few changes to his side which defeated YC Manora in the previous encounter as Ashley Cardozo, Mark Gomes and Dhurwesh Nijap were named in the starting XI.

Sandeep S opened a tally for Sesa FA in the 17th minute, while Saurav Mandal scored from the spot-kick to level back for the Red Machines.

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Churchill Brothers should have taken the lead early in the match as they were awarded a free-kick just outside the box in the third minute, following a tackle on their forward Afdal Varikkodan by Sesa's Dhurwesh. However, Quan Gomes failed to keep his strike on target from the set-piece.

Sesa FA also had a chance in the ninth minutes as Ashley found Myran Pereira in the box with an inch-perfect free-kick, however, he missed to connect from point blank range. They managed to surge ahead in the 17th minute from the another set-piece as Omkar Shetgaonkar's well-taken corner was brilliantly tapped in by Sandeep S to put Sesa into the 1-0 lead.

The Red Machines were unlucky in the 35th minutes as a goal bound shot from just outside the box by Pushkar Prabhu was handled by a Sesa defender inside the box, but referee Prasad Surlakar failed to notice the incident. Churchill Brothers came close to scoring once again just before the halftime as a curling cross by Kamran was brilliantly connected by Saurav from inside the box but his header missed the target by few inches.

Churchill Brothers finally managed to restore parity against Sesa FA from a spot-kick in the added minutes of the first half. They were awarded a penalty after Sesa substitute Shridharnath Dyaneshwar handled the ball inside the box, resulting in the referee quickly pointing towards the spot. Churchill midfielder Saurav stepped forward and calmly converted to make it 1-1 for his side.

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In the second half, the match was restricted to the midfield play for first 20 minutes where the Red Machines were dominant side with better possession.  However, they came with a series of attacks in the next 15 minutes.

Churchill Brothers missed another opportunity to take the lead as substitute Schubert Pereira made an attempt from inside the box with an overhead kick from Sadik's cross. However, Sesa custodian Roanal Gauncar managed to stop his strike from going inside the nets.

Churchill had another chance to take the lead in the 78th minute when Quan found Saurav with a long free-kick but the winger's strike was smartly pushed for a corner by the Sesa keeper.

At the other end, Sesa's Mohammed Faheez came up with a perfect long pass to Kunal Salgaonkar, who came close to scoring but his shot was collected by the Churchill keeper. With both teams failing to capitalise on their chances in the second half, the match ended in a stalemate.

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