CHENNAI: FEB 14
For Churchill Brothers, currently at the bottom of the table with just five points, a victory would be more than welcome. On the other hand, its opponent on Tuesday, Chennai City FC, which has seven points, will be keen to maintain the momentum after its win over Mumbai FC in its previous match.
At the pre-match media briefing on Monday, Chennai City’s coach V. Soundararajan said he expected Churchill Brothers to come out with guns blazing. “[This match] will be one of the biggest challenges for us. They will play the way we played against Mumbai FC. We are going to face a tough challenge from them,” said Soundar. Churchill Brothers coach Alfred Fernandes said the team has been unlucky not to script victories in its earlier matches despite having played well. “I have no complaints, only that the results have not come our way. We have been playing good football. “We’ve lacked the finish in the final third. We have to pull up our socks. Tomorrow [Tuesday] we will go for a win,” he said.
According to Alfred, defender Rowilson Rodrigues will not be playing (his wedding is on Tuesday), but will be available for the remaining home matches, and stopper-back Fulganco [Cardozo] too, will not play as he hasn’t recovered [from the tight schedule].
No tinkering
After a morale-boosting home win over Mumbai FC, Soundar reiterated that he will not tinker with the playing combination. “I don’t want to disturb the winning combination,” he said, while adding that he would like to use Marcos Tank more as a second-half substitute. Alfred also said that with just one Goan club in the I-league it meant more responsibility on Churchill, to give something back to the Goan fans. “We have a lot of expectations from the public.
We have to be more positive on the field,” he said.
