AGENCIES
SHILLONG
Churchill Brothers Sports Club start their I-League campaign with an away match against Shillong Lajong who has already tasted victory at the Nehru stadium in Shillong today.
Both teams have a lot of new faces but Shillong have an advantage because four of their players – Kynsailang Khongsit, Rakesh Pradhan, Phurba Lachenpa and Samuel Lyngdoh Kynshi are graduates from their youth development programme having already made their debut against Gokulm FC in their first match.
The head to head record between the two teams lies in favour of Churchill Brothers with 2 wins while Lajong winning just once and two draws from the 5 matches played in Shillong, the home team is expected to bring the best out of their energetic youngsters and the experienced foreigners.
Churchill Brothers finished 6th behind Lajong in the last season and were defeated 1-0 in this fixture when they visited Shillong.
Churchill Brothers retained some of their Indian players from last season and have signed new foreign players for the season. Three foreigners are from Nigeria; defender Osagie, midfielder Peter Omoduemuke and striker Eric Nwaimo. They also signed Emuejeraye Precious from Singapore and brought in Vietnam midfielder, Dinh Van Ta.
Shillong Lajong’s new foreign signings – Laurence Doe, Juho Oh, Daniel Odafin and Aiman Al Hagri also played their first I-League match last Monday and looked very promising.
Churcill Brothers head coach Shevchenko from Ukraine is a former defender of Churchill Brothers and also played for Dempo in the 2001 season.
At the pre-match press conference the Churchill head coach said, “We haven’t had too much time to prepare as the foreigners arrived late but with the Indian players the preparation has been good.”
“It is a fresh team and we will get better game by game”, he concluded.
With an average age of just 21 years, Shillong Lajong will rely heavily on the attacking services of their captain Samuel Lalmuanpuia, Redeem Tlang and their foreign recruit from Yemen, Aiman Al Hagri.
Coach Alison spoke well of his young squad in the pre-match press conference and said, “Our squad is very young but very energetic and creative. In the first game, they performed very well. We hope they continue working hard as well as learn from each game.”
Alison also said that his boys have gained more confidence after the first win and have been training hard to make it two in two in their opening two home fixtures. “After the win on Monday, the boys have gained more confidence. But now our main focus is the next match against Churchill.”
“The boys have recovered well from the first match and we have been training hard. We are ready for our second home match,” Alison further added.
“Churchill is a good team and always a tough side to play and we want to get three points from this game.” Alison said being wary of the importance of this match. “We need to put in more efforts especially in attack and defense right from the first minute till the end of the game,” he added.