Brothers hold BJMC

Brothers Union earned a valuable point in the Grameenphone Bangladesh Premier League as they held Team BJMC to a 1-1 draw at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Nigerian striker Kingsley Chogozie gave Brothers a 19th minute lead, which was cancelled by Guinean Ismael Bangoura in the 31st minute.
The outcome of the game made no changes in the positions of the nine teams as Team BJMC and Brothers Union stuck to fifth and seventh positions with 20 and 11 points respectively. Brothers Union however eased their relegation fears by increasing the gap with bottom-side Arambagh KS to five points.
From the outset, Team BJMC dominated the game to keep Brothers defenders busy, but conceded the lead in the 19th minute against the run of play.
Kingsley darted inside the BJMC box from the right to dodge past two defenders before hammering a powerful angular shot at the near post which slipped through the grips of BJMC's veteran goalkeeper Aminul Haque.
BJMC stepped up the attack and got the dividend immediately by striking on the half-hour mark.
National striker Toklish Ahmed ran down the right flank to whip in a cross for Bangoura, who finished the move with a side-volley to level the margin for BJMC, who defeated Brothers 2-0 in their first meeting of the league.
BJMC kept the momentum after the restart with substitute Abdullah Al Parvez releasing number of crosses from the right wing, but they could not break the backline of Brothers.
However, BJMC came close twice to taking the lead but the efforts went in vain due to the failure of the strikers. On 70 minutes, Eleta Kingsley advanced into the box from the right to cut the ball back for unmarked Bangoura, who saw his feeble attempt from the six-yard box cleared from the goalline by a Brothers defender.
Seven minutes later, BJMC produced another good chance with Eleta and Bangoura unsettling the Brothers backline but Abdullah Parvez shot miles off the target, with only the goalkeeper to beat.
In the dying moments, Brothers almost stole the show when Kingsley side-volleyed on a low cross from Khan Sharif, but the goalbound shot was cleared by BJMC defender Ramjan Ali.
Dutch coach Lodewijk De Kruif and Rene Koster, along with their spouses, watched the match and later Kruif talked to the BJMC defender Kesto Kumar and striker Toklish Ahmed, the two members of the national team, and Brothers midfielder Jamal Hossain.