Churchill Brothers open GPL tally, breeze past Guardian Angels

The Varca based club were the dominant side in the entire match with better possession and attacking prowess.

Churchill Brothers registered their first points in the Goa Professional League as they eased past Guardian Angels Sports Club 2-0 in the match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

Angels had started their GPL campaign with a win over SCC Cavelossim in the last match, whereas Churchill had suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat at the hands of Calangute Association in their first match of the season.

Churchill coach Alfred Fernandes made three changes as newly signed striker Uttam Rai was introduced in the starting XI, Banpynkhrawnam N. and Janak Kudmal were the other two new faces in the squad, while Angels coach Riston Rodrigues made only one change bringing in striker Abel Hammond in place of Aslon Oliveira.

Churchill started the match on attacking note and created many chances but poor finishing restricted them from taking an early lead. First, Mannas Sarkar saw his powerful shot from the top of the box was brilliantly blocked by Angels keeper Ram Sroop. A few minutes later, Alber Gonsalves tried his luck from outside the box but his sparkling shot missed the target narrowly.

Mannas had two back-to-back opportunities in the 20th minutes when he was fed with perfect crosses by Uttam but the striker failed to control the ball with just keeper to beat on both the occasions.

Finally, after wasting so many opportunities, the I-League side opened their tally in the 24th minutes when Janak long was misjudged by keeper Sroop, taking advantage of the same Savion Cardozo finished the ball into the empty net making it 1-0 for the Varca based club.

Also Read

• Dempo beat Vasco in a thrilling GPL encounter
• Panjim Footballers hold Salgaocar in GPL opener
• Panjim Footballers down SCC Cavelossim in GPL 

They had almost doubled their lead in the very next minutes but this time Mannas’ strike from close hit the goalpost and went out for a goal-kick.

Churchill’s Janak was once again in action when he went for the glory from just outside the box but Angel keeper Sroop came up with full-stretched save to deny the midfielder.

At the other end, Angels also had an opportunity to level the terms when Nicholas Rodrigues’ curling free-kick was entering the top corner but Churchill keeper Ricardo Cardozo made acrobatic efforts to push away his shot for a corner. A minute later, Abel saw in cross hit the crossbar and went out for a goal-kick.

Churchill doubled their lead in the 6th minutes of the second half as Angels keeper Sroom once again made a mistake to clear Alber’s powerful free-kick from outside the box, Churchill striker Mannas was in a perfect position, who took advantage of the goalkeeper’s error  and made an easy tap in to make it 2-0 for his side.

In the last quarter of the match, Angels showed some urgency to find the net but Churchill keeper Ricardo was at his best as he first he brilliantly blocked Perryson Rebello in a one-on-one situation. Next, he denied Abel in a similar style to keep his side safe.

[KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS]

With just five minutes to regular time, Perryson was in the best position to reduce the margin for Angels but Churchill keeper Ricardo once again did the best job to push his danger for safety.