I-League: Felix's brace sinks Salgaocar

Felix Chimaokwu's double strike helped Churchill Brothers score a 3-1 victory over Salgaocar and move to the third position in the I-League tournament in Margao on Sunday.

Churchill, who led 1-0 at half time, scored through Felix (28th, 55th) and Odafe Okolie (52nd) to pocket the match played at the Nehru Stadium.

Salgaocar who dominated a major part of the match pulled one back through Rocus Lamare in the injury time of the second half.

With this win, Churchill have 35 points from 21 matches while Salgaocar remain on 24 points from 23 matches.

Churchill, who came up with few raids, earned a penalty in the 28th minute when defender Luciano Sobrosa accidentally handled the ball while intercepting a high lob from Kalu along with Odafe Okolie inside the box.

Felix who took the penalty converted it beating keeper Amit Nandi to his right.

Churchill again earned a penalty in the 52nd minute when Luciano Sobrosa pulled Odafe Okolie from behind inside the box. Odafe made no mistake in converting it.

Three minutes later, Felix put the match beyond Salgaocar's reach when his shot from top of the box took a wicked deflection of Ikene Ikenwa's leg and caught keeper Amit Nandi on the wrong foot to find the net.

Earlier, Salgaocar who need a win badly to save themselves from relegation started with the right earnest as they dictated terms in both halves and probed more often and created plenty of chances.

However, they were found wanting inside the box as their final passes went stray or failed to beat the rival keeper.

Defender Anthony Barbosa and medio Francis combined well on the right flank and created scoring chances but Francis who had two clear chances in each halves failed to score.

Salgaocar who made couple of chances finally found the net in the injury time when Rocus Lamare headed in a cross from substitute Rino Anto.

Referee Pratap Singh showed yellow card to Salgaocar's Luciano Sobrosa, substiute Milagres Gonsalves and Churchill's Robert Lalthlamuana.