T&T strik­er Mar­cus Joseph net­ted the lone goal to lead Goku­lam Ker­ala to a 1-0 vic­to­ry over Churchill Broth­ers in the 2019/2020 11-club In­di­an I-League at the EMS Sta­di­um, Kozhikode, Ker­ala on Sun­day.

The 28-year-old Joseph, the 2018 T&T Pro League top scor­er with 18 goals and now in his sec­ond sea­son with the In­di­an club got the de­ci­sive strike in the 38th minute, his fifth item of the sea­son in eight match­es, off an as­sist from Ha­roon Fakhrud­din to give his team which al­so in­clud­ed fel­low T&T play­ers, de­fend­er An­dre Et­ti­enne, 29, and mid­field­er Nathaniel Gar­cia, 26, full points.

Churchill Broth­ers who had T&T de­fend­ers, Robert Primus, 29, and Radan­fah Abu Bakr, 32 in their start­ing eleven end­ed the match with ten men af­ter the lat­ter was is­sued a sec­ond yel­low card in the 86th minute af­ter pick­ing up his first in the 23rd.

With the win Goku­lam Kerela im­proved to 13 points from eight match­es in the fourth spot, three ahead of Churchill Broth­ers who were with­out last year's top­scor­er, T&T in­ter­na­tion­al Willis Plaza and have on­ly played sev­en match­es.

Ear­li­er last week, Abu Bakr scored in Churchill Broth­ers, 1-2 loss at Aci­es­ta TRAU at the Jawa­har­lal Nehru Sta­di­um, Mar­gao Goa, In­dia.

For­mer W Con­nec­tion mid­field­er, St Kitts & Nevis mid­field­er Ger­ard Williams fired Trau in­to the lead in the 15th minute, but Churchill Broth­ers who al­so fea­tured Primus, and Plaza, who net­ted 21 goals last year drew lev­el on the half-hour mark thanks to Abu Bakr.

Ten min­utes in­to the sec­ond-half TRAU would re­gain the lead when goal­keep­er Mo­ham­mad Ja­far Mon­dal con­ced­ed an own-goal be­fore Primus was cau­tioned in the 70th minute, and Plaza re­placed nine min­utes lat­er as their team went in search of an equalis­er which nev­er came.

In the pre­vi­ous round, out-of-favour na­tion­al de­fend­er Primus scored his sec­ond goal of the sea­son as Churchill Broth­ers bat­tled to a 2-2 draw with Aiza­wl at the Ra­jiv Gand­hi Sta­di­um, Aiza­wl.

At the top of the stand­ings is Mo­hun Bagan the club of na­tion­al de­fend­er Daneil Cyrus with 20 points from nine match­es fol­low­ing their 3-0 blank­ing of Ne­ro­ca who had T&T duo, 35-year-old goal­keep­er Mar­vin Phillip and 22-year-old de­fend­er Taryk Samp­son.

With his team up 2-0, Cyrus was sub­sti­tut­ed in the 68th minute with Tajik­istan strik­er Kom­ron Tur­sunov com­ing on in his place be­fore they added a third item in the fi­nal minute.

In their pre­vi­ous match, Cyrus scored the lone goal, a scorcher in the 18th minute to earn Mo­hun Bagan a nar­row 1-0 win at home to cel­lar-placed In­di­an Ar­rows. Pun­jab and TRAU are in joint sec­ond place with 14 points apiece while Ne­ro­ca lies eighth with eight points.