NEW DELHI, Aug 24: Langsning Football Club (Meghalaya) were not the kind of opposition that Churchill Brothers would have wanted to kick start their journey from the bottom of the ladder. Poor quality of the game and a slushy ground only added to the lacklustre showing of the Goan team despite pumping in seven goals in the Kalyani Black Label Federation Cup pre-quarterfinal tournament, here today.Cyril Barreto scored four goals, including a hat-trick, but it is unlikely that they will be impressed with the way they went about their first match.
Churchill who finished second in the inaugural National League and had to struggle to avoid relegation, didn't have to sweat it out to get past the North East side but their Scottish manager Danny McLenan expected much more from his side.
Barreto opened the floodgates in the fourth minute lobbing over goalkeeper Wansuk Lamin. He struck again in the sixth, eighth and the 17th minutes. Mario Soares scored the fifth in the 43rd minute.
Churchill's seasonedcampaigner Aqueel Ansari who joined the side after the break made his presence felt with a superb goal in the 80th minute after Barreto crossed from the left. Ansari struck again a minute later but narrowly missed a hat-trick.
Tomorrow, BSF take on Tollygunge Agrami and the winner will take on Churchill in the quarter-final. Quarter-finalists in the last year's KBL Cup, BSF have the services of international goalkeeper Bibhas Saha and talented bunch of players in Avtar Singh, Gorongopal, Jaswant Singh and Parmar Singh.
Tollygunge have recruited four new players for the season -- former Indian goalkeeper Sumit Mukherjee, Saeed Akinsanya (both from FC Kochin), Chibuzor (Churchill), A. Felix and Dulal Biswas (both from East Bengal).
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.