Abahani fail, Brothers sail

Title contenders Abahani received yet another jolt when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Chittagong Abahani in their Manyavar Bangladesh Premier League encounter at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong yesterday.

The four-time champions found themselves on the backfoot in the 40th minute when their former midfielder Yoko Samnik scored against them with a deflected free-kick. However, Nigerian forward Sunday Chizoba rescued a point for the Dhaka outfit from a spot-kick to level in the 52nd minute.

The draw pushed Abahani further back in the title race as they have now 24 points from 13 games, six behind leaders Sheikh Jamal DC. Chittagong Abahani though raised their tally to seven points to stay just point above of bottom-of-the-table Farashganj SC, who suffered a 1-3 defeat at the hands of Brothers Union at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

Brothers, who moved to 24 points with the win, came out winners despite playing with ten men for the last 35 minutes as Haitian striker Augustine Walson was sent off following an off-the-ball tussle with an opposition player.

The lanky Haitian, though, made sure he regained the lead in the goalscorer's chart with his 14th goal of the league while playing a key role in the other two goals.

Smarting from a 1-3 defeat at the hands of Sheikh Russel KC, Brothers got off to a brilliant start to take the lead in the seventh minute when Walson played a neat cut-back for Adam Jankasa, whose miscued attempt was nodded in by skipper Kester Akon.

Walson then initiated the move that resulted in the second goal in the 11th minute, thanks to Farashganj defender Mustafizur Rahman's miscued clearance. Farashganj reduced the arrears in the 23rd minute with Peter Akinyele converting from the spot but Walson restored Brothers' two-goal lead with an angular shot from inside the box on the stroke of half time.     

Farashganj dominated the game after the restart, and especially since Walson's removal, but failed to beat Brothers goalkeeper Biplob Bhattacharjee, who made three excellent saves.

TEAM BJMC STUN MUKTIS

Team BJMC inflicted a 1-0 defeat on Muktijoddha Sangsad in the second match in Dhaka to move to 12 points while keeping their opponents to 21 points. Elelta Kingsley scored the only goal of the game in the 66th minute.