Churchill Brothers survived a second half onslaught to defeat Salgaocar by a solitary goal in a ninth National Football League match in Margao, Goa, on Monday.
The all-important goal was scored minutes before the interval when Yusif Yakubu fired home a fierce volley off Marcos Pereira's headed pass, which came to him via Subhashis Roy Choudhary's flag-kick from the right.
Coming strongly in the second half, Salgaocar were denied victory mainly by 'keeper Mark Mascarenhas, who saved two close range shots from Brazilian Fabio Dos Passos, who played his first match today.
Rocus Lamare missed an open chance in front of the goal as he directed the ball wide off the mark.
Churchill thus scored their third victory in the NFL, and with 13 points from 12 matches are in ninth place while Salgaocar have 12 points from 12 matches.
With today's goal, Yakubu took his tally to eight goals and is at par with Dempo's Ranty Martins.
Yakubu was declared man of the match.
Referee D S Bist showed yellow cards to Churchill's Aqueel Ansari and Marcos Pereira.
