Sunday powers Abahani

Sunday Chizoba scored the first hattrick of the JB Bangladesh Premier League to power Abahani to a massive 5-1 win over cash-crunched Feni Soccer Club at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

With eight wins, four in a row, in 13 matches, the four-time professional league champions consolidated their lead on the top of the 12-team table with 29 points while a sixth  consecutive defeat left Feni Soccer just a place above the bottom-placed Uttar Baridhara Club with nine points.

Abahani came into the match on the back of a morale boosting 2-1 win over title rivals Chittagong Abahani and the Sky Blues made light work of minnows Feni Soccer -- who have been going through a lot of trouble off the field to run the training camp as well as hidden conflict over unpaid wages with the players -- to notch up their biggest win in this league.

English attacking midfielder Lee Tuck, local winger Jewel Rana and Nigerian striker Sunday set the tone of the match early but Jewel failed to find the target from inside the box with only goalkeeper Sujan Chowdhury to beat in the 10th minute of the game. The young national forward, however, made amends eight minutes later by driving home from close range.

Sunday then flicked a low cross from Lee home in the 26th minute before tapping in a Jewel cutback in eight minutes after restart after the Nigerian had been denied from the spot by the Feni Soccer goalkeeper.

Uche Felix reduced the margin nine minutes later as Feni Soccer showed signs of a comeback, but Sunday took the match away from them in the 78th minute with his third of the match, a simple chip over the goalkeeper, to raise his tally to 14.

Under-16 striker Saad Uddin completed the rout by striking his first premier league goal two minutes from time after a Lee Tuck free-kick was parried to his path by the Feni Soccer goalkeeper.

CHITTAGONG ABAHANI KEEP THE CHASE

Chittagong Abahani kept the heat on the leaders by beating Mohammedan SC 1-0, thanks to a suicidal strike from Mohammedan defender Bishwanath Ghosh.

The fortuitous win took the port city side to 27 points, just two behind Abahani while Mohammedan remained in ninth position with 12 points from 13 outings.

Chencho Gyeltshen was drafted into the playing eleven of Chittagong Abahani for the first time but the Bhutanese star forward was anonymous throughout the match even though he hardly got the service he needed from his teammates. 

It was Mohammedan, however, who created the first scoring opportunity on the half-hour mark when Guinean striker Ismail Bangoura curled one in from the edge of the box, only to be denied by the woodwork.

Chittagong Abahani got the all-important goal one minute before the break when Biswanath struck his own net while trying to clear a chip from Chittagong Abahani winger Zahid Hossain.