Churchill Brothers defeated NEROCA FC 4-1 at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Fatorda, on Sunday. Tettey Adjah (26') scored the only goal for the Manipuri outfit while Ponif Vaz (5'), Willis Plaza (35' pen.), Vinil Poojary (65') and Israil Gurung (90+2') completed the tally for the Goans.
Bernardo Tavares was without both of his regular centre backs in Robert Primus and Radanfah Abu Bakr besides four other changes as Plaza made it back in the side alongside Lalgoulen Hangshing, Poojary, Jovel Martins, James Kithan and new signing Socrates Pedro who played a half in the solitary goal defeat against Gokulam Kerala.
On the other hand, Gift Raikhan introduced NEROCA's January signings Subash Singh and Govin Singh as Boubacar Diarra and Siam Hanghal started on the bench.
After Pedro tested Marvin Phillip early on, the NEROCA skipper did exceptionally well to dive low and keep Plaza from finding the back of the net. The resultant corner taken by Quan Gomes evaded everyone before landing at the feet of Vaz who obliged to slot it in to put Churchill in front in the fifth minute.
A completely unmarked Pedro could have doubled the lead in five minutes but sidetapped an inch-perfect curling delivery by Hangshing wide while Adjah found the side netting at the opposite end.
I-League
Somewhat against the run of play, NEROCA found their way back as Adjah latched on to a pass from Pritam Singh and dispatched it past Kithan in the 26th minute but Churchill Brothers restored their lead before half-time as Plaza converted from the spot-kick after being brought down by Roshan Singh.
Crossing over, the hosts had the better of the opportunities with Plaza missing the mark by inches and Phillip denying Pedro. The visitors' custodian was once again alert against the Portuguese attacker around the hour mark.
In the 65th minute, it was Poojary who rounded off Phillip to make it 3-1 after receiving a through pass by Plaza, who was denied by the ever present NEROCA custodian just before Kithan denied both Adjah from close range and a shot from Govin around the 70th minute.
Govin made a mess of things with a back pass in the NEROCA box from which Plaza picked out subsitute Gurung who gracefully converted in injury time.
The win helped Churchill Brothers to the fifth spot, equal on points with Gokulam Kerala (13), both of whom have played eight games, while NEROCA stay eighth with eight points from 10 matches.
