Churchill take full points off Air India

S Ayyappa Swamy

Air-India's strikers made a fool of themselves inside the ground while Churchill Alemao did likewise outside, as Goan champions Churchill Brothers registered a fortuitous solitary goal victory over their Bombay rivals in the fifth National Football League, at Cooperage on Friday.

Five golden chances went abegging as Air-India's Herbert Philip, Henry Picardo, Khalid Jamil, Anthony Fernandes and Thomba Singh all failed to convert chances after getting clear balls well and away from the Churchill defence, which was repeatedly caught off-guard.

And when Churchill did put ball to goal in the 78th minute through substitute Kaustav Ghosh, it was because of the largesse of assistant referee M A Siddiqui.

Right under his nose, Igor Shkvrin, from an off-side position, latched on to a pass from Jose Colaco, charged down the right and centred the ball for Ghosh to slam home after Edson de Crasto had a dummy run down the middle.

Churchill had every reason to be delighted at the result for they had been at the receiving end for a good part of the match. Barring a couple of breakway opportunities, Churchill, now with eight points from seven ties, hardly showed the game that took them to the final of the Rovers Cup in January.

Yet, Churchill boss, former Goa Chief Minister Churchill Alemao was extremely remonstrative as he picked up a bottle of half-filled water and hurled it at the fourth official at the end of the match. In the end, he only made a laughing stock of himself as the water only wet his own backside.

"Only two minutes of added-on time was shown but the referee played more than four minutes,'' Mr. Alemao said after the match, adding, "the refereeing was very poor in this match.''

His brother Joaquim Alemao, the president of the Goa Football Association, chipped in: "It is atrocious. Not only here, but even in Goa we have been at the receiving end of the refereeing decisions. We have half a mind to close down the team because of this. And I cannot even react because I'm the president of the GFA.''

Air-India coach Bimal Ghosh too was furious though he did not delve much into the goal that did his team in.

"A team that misses so many chances does not deserve to win. I am at a loss to explain this inability score,'' he said.

While Herbert Philip is a known 'misser', international Jamil, who is moving to top fitness after an injury, too wasted time inside the box when all he had to do was to chip the ball over the advancing goalkeeper Edward Ansah.

5th National Football League
How the teams stand
Teams		P	W	D	L	F	A		Pts	GD
FC Kochin		7	4	3	0	12	8		15	3
M Bagan		6	4	2	0	11	5		14	6
East Bengal		6	4	1	1	9	3		13	6
Vasco		7	3	4	0	6	3		13	3
Salgaocar		6	4	0	2	11	7		12	4
Churchill		7	2	2	3	8	6		8	2
Mahindra		7	1	4	2	5	6		7	-1
Tollygunge		7	1	3	3	2	6		6	-4
ITI		6	1	2	3	2	4		5	-2
Air-India		7	1	2	4	4	9		5	-5
SBT		7	0	4	3	5	11		4	-6
JCT		7	0	3	4	4	11		3	-7

Related reports:

FC Kochin lead National Football League race
F C Kochin stay ahead
Salgaocar close in on early leaders
Mohun Bagan well-placed after five rounds
Air India, Mahindra in a spot - Summary of Round 6