Church Boys secured their place in the National League after defeating Machhindra FC 1-0 under the floodlights of Dashrath Stadium on Saturday.
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Will Church Boys United win the national league as the Martyrs' Memorial League 'A' Division winner? It will be difficult to answer this right now. But Church Boys have added a brick to their chances of winning the national league by winning two important games in a row. Church Boys managed to defeat Machindra FC 1-0 in the floodlit match held at the Dasharath Stadium on Saturday. The audience watching a 'high-profile' match of domestic football was negligible.
The sensation and tension that this match should have given was not lacking. The way the Church Boys coach and players celebrated at the end of the match also shows how important this victory was. The hero of the match was Nigerian player Abayomi Fakunle, 25, who played a key role in the match. In the second half, Church Boys almost dominated Machindra and Fakunle took advantage of that and scored a powerful goal in the 74th minute with a powerful shot from the penalty area.
The shy and quiet Fakunle had a short reaction to the goal, saying, "It was the way it should have been." But coach Suman Shrestha praised him. Again, this Lagos City winger is dear to this coach. Coach Shrestha says, "He is a very hard-working player. He works hard. He is also a good person." Coach Shrestha was equally enthusiastic about this victory.
Church Boys, who also defeated Tribhuvan Army Club in their last match, have now beaten Machhindra and collected a maximum of 6 points from two big matches. Coach Shrestha said in the post-match conference, "Our game in Pokhara did not go as planned. But now that we have returned from there, all the players have played well." With this win, Church Boys have 16 points from 7 matches. This is the team's fifth consecutive win.
On the other hand, Machhindra was limited to 16 points as they suffered their first defeat in the competition. Analyzing the defeat, Machhindra coach Pravesh Katuwal said, ‘Church Boys is a strong team and its players are of high quality. That is why it is a strong opponent. But the goal scored in today’s match was due to a technical error by our players. But there are still many matches left in the tournament. It cannot be said that it will happen like this right now.’
APF is one of the two undefeated teams at the top of the league table. APF could not strengthen its position further in the next match on Saturday. The second match of the day was the Police Derby. It ended in an exciting draw. Police held APF to a 2-2 draw. APF could not maintain its lead even after taking the lead twice. However, APF remained at the top of the table with 20 points from 8 matches. Police was limited to 8 points from 8 matches.
APF took the lead in the 10th minute through Pradeep Lama’s goal. Shishir Chaudhary equalized in the 27th minute. Pradeep scored the second goal for APF in the 61st minute and with this the team was ahead for the second time. Oshendra Katuwal scored the second goal for Police in the 88th minute and the game ended in a draw. Earlier, Police, who were struggling for a good performance, had presented themselves aggressively against APF.
Police have collected 4 points in the last 2 matches. This is the best performance of Police so far in this tournament. After the match, Police coach Chetan Ghimire claimed, ‘Police have returned to their rhythm.’ He said, ‘Police have returned to their rhythm since the last match and this has increased the confidence of the team. The current draw against the team at the top of the league is proof of this.’ Police had scored 7 goals against Nav Janajagruti in their previous match.
APF coach Rajendra Tamang, however, claimed that his team lost 2 points in this draw. In the first match of the day, Shree Bhagwati had easily won 6-0 over Kankre Bihar. The hero of this game was Sujan Dangol. He completed a personal hat-trick towards the end of the game. Sujan scored two goals in the 87th and 89th minutes and then completed the third goal in the fourth minute of injury time. This is the shortest hat-trick possible in this tournament so far.
Before that, Divas Oraon scored one goal each in the 26th minute, Suraj Gurung in the 37th minute and Shishir Lekhi in the 70th minute for Shree Bhagwati. After this win, Bhagwati has 8 points from 8 games. This is only the team's second win. The team has also played two draws. Kankre Bihar, on the other hand, was limited to 1 point from 8 games. The team is still struggling to get its first win.
