Margao, February 19: Defending champion Salgaocar will be looking to get their act together in the upfront to garner full points and keep their chances afloat for the title when they meet Tollygunge Agaragami on Sunday in the return match of the fourth edition of National Football League.FC Kochin has proved to be dark horse in this league as they beat defending champion Salgoacar (1-0) who were cruising along merrily undefeated till the eighth round and latter Mohun Bagan (1-0) to keep the title contention wide open.Churchill Brothers is leading the table with 31 points, closely followed by Bagan with 29 points. Mahindras are third with 25 points at the end of the 15th round. Salgaocar, who suffered two defeats at the hands of Mohun Bagan in both their home and away matches, are placed fifth with 23 points from six wins, fuve draws and three losses.Tollygunge, who drew with Salgaocar in the home match, are placed sixth with 20 points from five wins, five draws and five losses.Salgaocar, who scored 11 goals from 14 matches, lack firepower in the upfront. Coach Shabir Ali's boys Santos and Alvito have yet to rediscover their form which they had displayed in Rover's Cup, Durand Cup and Super Cup. Salgaocar coach will have to see that his team does not lose points further if they are to be in contention for the title.Uzbek recruit Azmat, who did not perform well in both the matches he played, has shown good improvement during match practice. He and Bruno are likely to play on Sunday along with Santos. Salgaocar has a steady attack. Hard working Dharmajit Singh and S Venkatesh will be moving from the wings while Habib and Lawal playing the role of playmakers.Salgaocar, who have conceeded the least number of goals so far, have the best defence but cannot afford to remain complacent as Tollygunge are known to upset the rival defence with quick and dangerous counter-attack which they had proved against ITI and Mahindras in their last matches after trailing behind to hold them to a draw.Salgaocar will be missing the service of dependable defender and captain Robert Fernandes because of match suspension. His place will be taken by Covan Lawerence or Sanjay Aprtha.All Tollygunge players are fit. Jayant Sen, who had not played the last two matches due to injury, will be playing upfront along with captain Chandan Das, Sasthi Duley and Seriki who are their main goal getters. Das has been their leading scorer with four goals.Abayomi Felix, Srikanta Dutta and Ayoyemi Isiaka will be playing the pivotal role in the middle and Parthasarthi Dey, Kajal Bhattacharjee and Soumen Sarkar who had a good match against Mahindras will guard the defence.Bivas Ghosh will be manning the goal.
