JCT seek victory

MARGAO, February 21: Defending champion Jagatjit Cotton Textiles (JCT) will battle it out with runners-up Churchill Brothers to increase the...

MARGAO, February 21: Defending champion Jagatjit Cotton Textiles (JCT) will battle it out with runners-up Churchill Brothers to increase their tally in the second edition of Philips National Football League here tomorrow.

Both Churchill and JCT are struggling down the order to remain out of relegation and have equal points from 12 outings.

Defending champion JCT’s dull performance in NFL is being attributed to poor finishing by their strikers.

Looking back into previous matches, JCT’s coach Sukhvinder Singh said, "Our boys, despite dominating, were held to a draw against Indian bank, Air-India and Dempo in the second leg due to poor finishing by strikers. This placed us down the order. Now that every match is important and no team inferior, we hope our boys will put their best and win remaining six matches to be in race for top five."

JCT would be missing the services of reliable stopper back Musa Aliv who received two yellow cards and wing-back Tarsem Lal, whose mother died this morning. They wouldthen have to rely on Nigerian trio of Stephen Abarowei, Seriki Abdul Lateef and Emeka Achilefu to lead the attack from front, backed by Harjinder Singh, Bhupinder Singh and Hardip Singh.

Churchill boasts of a good mid-field comprising Tejinder Kumar, Aqueel Ansari and Bassim Yonan. Their defence, which has played reasonably well, will have to contain the trio of Stephen, Seriki and Emeka.