Sunil Chhetri

Ludhiana: JCT kept up the pressure over table-toppers Dempo Sports Club with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Churchill Brothers in the fourth round of the ongoing ONGC I-League at the Guru Nanak Stadium Saturday.

After a barren first period, Brazilian Marcos Pereira (49th), Nigerian Abdul Latif Seriki (56th) and India international Sunil Chhetri (68th) ensured full points for Sukhwinder Singh’s team.

This was Churchill’s second straight defeat after the 0-2 reversal against Dempo in round three. Pereira opened the scoring with a free-kick in the 49th and the lead was doubled with a splendid strike by Seriki off a pass from Pereira.

Chhetri got on the scoresheet when he capitalised on a mistake by Churchill keeeper Vinay Singh to knock in a pass from Seriki.

The team from Punjab now has 10 points while Churchill have six.

At the Cooperage in Mumbai, Mahindra United and Viva Kerala battled their way to a disappointing goalless draw to share two points.

In Margao, Dempo will look to maintain their winning momentum when they take on injury-hit East Bengal on Sunday .

East Bengal, who have six points from three matches, are struggling with injuries to key players.The Calcutta outfit arrived here Friday evening without the injured Surkumar Singh, M. Suresh, Ashim Biswas, Dipankar Roy, Anupuam Sarkar and Chandan Das, leaving coach Subrata Bhattacharya to juggle his options against in-form Dempo, who have won all their three matches so far. (PTI)