Churchill Brothers resume I-League campaign against Indian Arrows

Churchill Brothers FC resume their I-League title chase against a plucky Indian Arrows in a return-leg fixture here on Saturday.

Churchill notched up a solitary goal victory against the Arrows in the first leg in Cuttack, courtesy a Willis Plaza strike. Since then, the Trinidadian striker has moved on to become the joint-highest scorer of the league with 13 goals.

More importantly, Churchill, under the tutelage of Romanian coach Petre Gigiu, have demonstrated some attractive football and apart from Plaza's sublime goal scoring form, Gambian winger Dawda Cessay has also been in excellent touch this season.

As a result of this, they find themselves in joint second spot -- with Real Kashmir -- after 13 rounds and five points behind leaders Chennai City FC.

 

"It will be very difficult because we don't have some players. We play every game to win. If we lose one game, we are out of the title race. This game is very important for my team now," said Gigui.

"Of course, our opponents want to play good and want to gain some against us. To be in the fight, we must win every game and we are confident to win tomorrow although, we know that the game is not going to be easy for us," he said.

For the Arrows, they have already overhauled their win record from last season's campaign, and are looking good for more. Coach Floyd Pinto seemed to have settled in on his formation and squad.

"At this point of time, we are working on the basics of the players, both tactically and technically. We are pleased that the players have improved in both aspects since the first game. We hope that this improvement continues as the season goes on to earn more points," Pinto said.

"There are too many players in Churchill Brothers who are attacking-minded. We can't focus on one individual. We need to be a good defensive unit, as a whole. We need to hit them with the counter attacks with more precision."

Churchill will still be a huge mountain to climb, given their form, physicality and quality, and the Arrows players will do well to get something out of the game at Tilak Maidan which has seen the most goals, 23 in all, this season.