Sanjiv Stalin's missed penalty in the 84th minute denied Arrows from snatching away a point from giants Churchill Brothers...

Willis Plaza netted a brace as Churchill Brothers registered an important I-League 2018/19 win over Indian Arrows on Saturday at the Tilak Maidan.

The former East Bengal striker found the back of the twice in the first half (22', 45'). Deepak Tangri scored a consolation goal for the visitors (38').

Churchill coach Petre Gigiu made three changes from his side's 2-1 win over NEROCA FC as Hussein Eldor, Israil Gurung and Nickson Castana made the XI in place of Wayne Vaz, Richard Costa and Khalid Aucho.

The hosts also changed their shape to a 4-3-3 formation with Nenad Novakovic promoted to midfield with Willis Plaza, Anthony Wolfe and Dawda Ceesay in the attack.

Floyd Pinto brought in Abhijit Sarkar and Deepak Tangri in place of Lalengmawia and Vikram Pratap Singh in a 4-2-3-1 formation after the Arrows' solitary goal defeat against East Bengal.

The Arrows began the encounter holding their shape quite well in defence and also forced Churchill to defend at times until the hosts broke the deadlock in the 22nd minute as Plaza was at hand to head in a Dawda Ceesay cross from the left.

It didn't take long for the Arrows though to reply with an equaliser as Deepak Tangri headed the ball into the back of the net from Abhijeet Sarkar's corner in the 37th minute.

Ninthoinganba Singh forced Kithan to pull off a save at his left near post. Churchill to got a chance to restore their lead as Anthony Wolfe's shot came off the upright. The linesman had also raised his flag signalling an offside.

At the stroke of half-time, Plaza strolled past both Boris and Jitendra and completed his brace with another calm finish from Ceesay'sassist to retain his side's lead going into the break.

Hardly anything sufficed in the second half other than some late drama when referee Senthil Nathan made a rather late call to award a penalty for a handball against Aniston Fernandes. However, Sanjeev Stalin's shot from the penalty spot was saved by Kithan, diving low to his right. Stalin had another go from the rebound but the shot went wide.

The win takes Churchill Brothers within two points of league leaders Chennai City FC (30) while Indian Arrows remain on the eighth position on the league table with 13 points after the 14th round fixture.