MUMBAI, Dec 2: Bengal Mumbai Football Club (BMFC) and poetic justice prevailed over Churchill Brothers as heroes and villains traded roles on either side of the pitch in penalty-shootout semi-final drama of the 98th Bristol Rovers Cup football tournament at the Cooperage today.BMFC's Nigerian striker Emeka Achelifu more than compensated for a penalty miss during regulation time to take the home side to Saturday's final after Churchill's Ghanian goalkeeper Edward Ansah suffered the only miss in the test of nerves to break a 1-1 deadlock.Soccer's version of Russian Roulette was applied when 30 minutes extra-time failed to produce a golden goal after a 1-1 full-time scoreline. After eight fluently taken attempts from the spot, the erratically brilliant Ansah, who saved last year's runners-up from certain defeat time and again during open play, blasted waywardly.Emeka, carrying an injury and the burden of a wasted penalty a little over an hour earlier, stepped up to haul BMFC to what would be theirfinest achievement on a national front in their young history.No mistake this time as the Nigerian shot to the left of Ansah, who wasn't given a chance to make amends for his lapse only seconds earlier.In a supporting cast was another hero for BMFC, and the advent of enigmatic striker Udaykumar Konar brought zip to the attack that stretched and frayed Churchill's disjointed defence and mid-field.Make no mistake, BMFC deserved to win and coach Jamshed Nassiri like everyone else present, thought it came late.``We should have finished the match in the first half itself,'' Nassiri said. ``Besides the wasted penalty, I had seven or eight clear chances that we wasted listed on my notepad,'' he reflected.Indeed, there was precious little Churchill could do to stem BMFC's domination in the match besides the goal they scored. Ringing their substitutes in the second half, the Goans, guided by Scotsman Danny McLennan, had some say in the proceedings only in the second half.Both goals in open playfollowed defensive errors. BMFC struck in the 39th minute of a pedestrian first-half when a hesitant Danzie Ferrao gave diminutive striker Herbert Philip a chance to slot into the far corner after the outstanding young linkman, James Singh, crossed.More than the penalty miss, Emeka might have rued heading across the goal and out with a chance from point blank before the cheers had died down - another good cross from James Singh, shaping adeptly on the right.The signs seemed ominous for BMFC when Emeka shot the penalty in the 53rd minute into Ansah. Worse still, Philip following up, shot wide from hand shaking distance.Little Somatai Saiza, struggling today on the left, made way for Elvis Fernandes and the substitution brought Churchill fans joy.But it needed an error by BMFC's Nigerian stopper Oneyaka Okafor to miss Fernandes' headed ball into the box and Mensah running in levelled scores in the 77th minute.A brilliant save by Ansah, who stuck out a foot to deny James Singh seconds into theextra-period, prolonged the drama as did a torrent of chances that fell to Konar, who struck the bar on one occasion.But the tie-breaker it was. Mensah, Omumanu Hussain, Mario Soares and Danzie Ferrao had no problems in beating BMFC's Gumpe Rime. Neither did Kasif Jamal, Aloke Das, Oneyaka Okafor, Gurinder Pal Singh against Ansah manning Churchill's goal before the custodian himself changed role.He failed and Emeka stepped up to bring on BMFC celebrations.
