Churchill Brothers lifted their first national title edging out Mahindra United 1-0 in the final of the 120th Osian’s Durand Cup football tournament here at Dr Ambedkar Stadium today.Leading from the front was their charismatic captain Odafe Onyeka Okolie. The Nigerian slammed the winner in the 11th minute, taking his tally to 11 from four matches in the meet. The Nigerian received the golden boot for top-scoring in the tournament, while defender Gouramangi Singh was voted the best player of the tournament. The match started on an explosive note as Churchill’s Mboyo Iyomi hit the net in the 1st minute with a perfectly timed volley off a cross from Thokchom Naoba Singh, but it was ruled off-side by linesman Deepak Singh. The move set the tone for the grand finale as both teams got into the attacking mode instantly. And it was the Nigerian poacher Odafe yet again to hit the mark in the 11th minute. The Churchill captain collected a cross from Raju just outside the box and dodged Ravanan before unleashing a ferocious hit past Sandeep Nandi under the bar. Mahindra’s defence, that had not let in a single goal in regulation time so far, appeared clueless in the absence of NP Pradeep, ruled out of the final with hamstring injury. Odafe and Iyomi, with their power and skill, combined well to make some good moves, but none translated into goals. Particularly impressive was a dribble by Odafe in the midfield when, surrounded by an army of challengers, the Nigerian displayed great skill to take the ball through. Down by a goal, the Jeep-men where looking down the barrel, but some good work in the middle by Yusuf Yakubu and Sushant Matthew helped them muster some self-esteem and the later part of the first half was mostly confined to the midfield. Mahindra replaced Izumi Arata with Mohammed Rafi in the 51st minute and that hastened the raids on the Goan post. However, their inability to finish allowed Churchill to maintain the lead. Churchill too adopted a strange ploy of calling back Odafe for defensive duties, which virtually rendered their attack toothless.Latching on this golden opportunity, Mahindra charged ahead, but their moves were not synchronised and on occasions lacked the pace to pierce the Churchill defence.The closest Mahindras came to scoring was in the 70th minute when Yakubu sent a fine cross to Ajayan but the India team winger used too much time and too little energy and the weak shot was collected by Churchill custodian Vinay Singh.In the end Mahindra coach Derrick Periera was left ruing that one defensive error that fetched his team a second consecutive defeat in the final this year. They lost to East Bengal in Federation Cup in October. “It was a defensive error that cost us dear. Even the midfield lacked creativity, we will have to take stock soon as there is not much time left for the national league,” said Periera.With the win, Churchill also extracted revenge for the 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Mahindras in the 2001 Durand Cup final.
