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Chirag United Kerala produced their first home win of the season as
they defeated Prayag United SC in a tight encounter in the tenth round of I-League at the University Stadium, Trivandrum.
David Sunday’s brace was the stand out performance of the day, while Yusif Yakubu reduced the deficit for the away side.
Nizam Packeer Ali handed Usman Ashik with his first start in his career, relegating his first choice winger Shahbaz Saleel to the bench. David Sunday and Anil Kumar partnered the attack for the home side, while Prayag were without their Captain Lalkamal Bhomwik in their long trip to Kerala, who was replaced by Jayante Sen in the starting eleven.
It was all Chirag United Kerala in the first two minutes of the game, and they could have been three goals ahead if the young Ashik had taken all the opportunities he had received infront of the Prayag goal.
It was Chirag who took the lead in the 45th minute improvising on a mistake by Arnab Mondal whose back pass to keeper was intercepted by David Sunday, who lifted over Abhijit into the goal, for his first goal. The teams went into half time with Chirag in the driving seat.
Prayag found the equaliser immediately after the start of the second half. Chirag defence was unable to negotiate with Sukhan Dey’s long throw into the box which fell to Yakubu to tap in, his seventh goal of the season.
The match seemed to be turning in the away team’s favour as the second half progressed, until Sunday again made use of a mistake from Arnab to score the winner for Chirag.
The goal came as a breather for Chirag United as they were struggling to earn points, despite playing well in the previous matches. The win earns them eight points from ten matches. This was the last match for Chirag at Trivandrum. Now, the
