New recruit Francis Okechukwu scored a late equaliser against Gokulam Kerala to secure a point for Churchill Brothers...

Churchill Brothers earned a lifeline in their relegation battle after Francis Okechukwu scored an injury time goal to cancel Henry Kisekka's 72nd-minute strike at the Tilak Maidan in Goa. Alfred Fernandes was a happy man as his side earned a point while Chennai City were thrashed 7-1 by East Bengal in Kolkata.

"It (Chennai's loss) can be a relief but at the end of the day, you have to play hard and put the points on the table. With both teams on 16 points (before Saturday's ties) on head-to-head, they were above us. We have been watching them and they also must be having an eye on our games and hoping for a negative result for us. 7-1 does not reflect the true character of the team. Chennai is a good team. Maybe something went wrong," said Fernandes.

The Goan coach rued about the missed opportunities in the match but seemed content with a point after a dry run of three matches, but refused to comment on the latest foreign recruits.

"We have been accumulating a lot of points in the mid-season and we were in a flowing form at one stage. Suddenly, something went wrong and we were stranded on 16 points. This point is welcome towards the fag end of the match. It could have been a different story as we missed a sitter in the 10th minute.

"It's not fair on our part to judge them (Francis and Siyo) with one performance. They just had one or two training sessions which did not consist of any tactical sessions other than the match preparations. Siyo is a quality striker who has proved his ability in the Bangladesh league. Francis is a guy who works hard and he came out with the equaliser," stated Fernandes.

The former youth development coach of Churchill Brothers sounded extremely cautious with the upcoming fixtures and even went on to term the match against Mohun Bagan as 'suicidal'.

"Mohun Bagan will come hard at us because they also want to go up in the table as the Super Cup is also an incentive for a lot of teams. So the next match against Mohun Bagan will be very suicidal for them and for us. Being our home match, we will have to make the most of it," opined Fernandes.

On the other hand, Bino George was elated with the performance of his boys after they were on the brink of registering their fourth consecutive win.

"We have no pressure. Churchill (Brothers) have relegation. I know that my boys will keep improving after every match. Today (Saturday) also you could see that we had better ball possession. By playing like this, we created a lot of chances. It was only from that silly mistake (by goalkeeper Bilal Khan) that we conceded a goal. Otherwise, we had three points. I really appreciate my boys because they were playing a full attacking game as if they were playing a home match," said George.

He acknowledged that his team had done their homework before facing Churchill as the Goan side recruited two foreigners just before the match.

"Churchill (Brothers) lost the last three players and the last one 3-0 against Chennai (City FC). They recruited two new players and I had checked on the internet about their striker (Jeancy Zunapio Siyo) who was the top scorer in Bangladesh. We don't bother about anything but as Chennai conceded seven goals (in the 7-1 loss against East Bengal), it is good for Churchill," signed off George.