Churchill Bothers SC compensated for their defeat against Persipura Jayapura in the opening match of the AFC Cup by defeating New Radiant SC from the Maldives with a convincing 3-0 victory in a home encounter at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Margao on Tuesday.

The Red Machines kicked off the match and right from the word go started dominating the proceedings and within three minutes they had a chance to score when their Costa Rican striker Christain Lagos headed just wide off a Raju Yumnam cross from the left. Then in the 5th minute Ravanan’s looping header was cleared by the New Radiant SC goalkeeper Imran Mohammed. The first ten minutes Churchill had lions share of possession.

New Radiant SC had one rare attempt on the Churchill goal when Fasir Ali scuffed his shot off a pass from Mukhtar.

Churchill Brothers had more than dozen attempts on goal but were struggling to find that elusive goal which was finally corrected in the 31st minute when their Costa Rican import Christan Lagos scored with a powerful shot after Anthony Wolfe had chested down a Satish Singh cross from the right.

Churchill kept on pressing hard and had plenty of attempts till the end of 1st Half.

Second half was no different for the Maldivian league champions as the Red Machines kept coming at them especially Anthony Wolfe who was getting a lot of chances but was unable to score but in the 53rd minute Wolfe managed to score the teams second goal with a shot from close range which beat the New Radiant keeper Imran Mohammed.

New Radiant tried their best to build up an attack but they were just not able to link upfront coupled with organised defending by the Churchill back four. Youngster Sanjay Balmuchu and Ravanan D stood tall at the heart of Churchill defense.

Christan Lagos scored the 3rd goal and his brace when he scored off a rebound from a shot which was initially taken by AbdelHamid Shabana.

Churchill Brothers head coach Mariano Dias said “we played a good game. This will give us confidence to do even better in the coming matches. If we keep playing like this we can put opponents under pressure and force them to make mistakes”

New Radiant coach Ismail Anil pointed out that his team was not full strength going into the match and also experienced fatigue and tiredness “however we tried to raise the tempo in the latter part of the second half but by then it was too late”.

With this win Churchill Brothers move to second position in the Group E table.

The Red Machines face Home United of Singapore at the Fatorda Stadium on the March 18.