Church Boys United, the defending champions of the Martyr’s Memorial ‘A’ Division League, registered their fourth win in six matches in the National League after defeating Tribhuvan Army FC 2-1 on Tuesday.

Abayomi Oluwaseun Fakunle opened the score for Church Boys United in the 32nd minute that saw the departmental side, which were yet undefeated in the league with three wins and two draws in the last five games, fall behind on the artificial turf of the ANFA Complex.

Nawayug Shrestha then equalised for Army two minutes into the second half to keep their unbeaten run safe.

However, in the 64th minute, Church Boys capitalised on a counterattack to get back in the lead.

Fakunle ran with the ball with open space ahead of him. Army’s goalie Bikesh Kuthu came ahead and slid outside the box to prevent Fakunle from scoring his second. But the ball, with a rebound from Kuthu’s save, found Rohan Karki with the goal post unattended. Karki then scored his first goal of the tournament from just outside the 18-yard box, and gave the winning goal to Church Boys.

Meanwhile, Army had other chances to equalise. The best one came in the 84th minute when Shrestha found Nirajan Dhami open inside the 18-yard box. However, before Dhami could shoot, Milan Rai came running and made a clean sliding tackle to prevent the equaliser.

Karki was adjudged the player of the match.

Meanwhile, Friends’ Club Kopundole and Chitlang FC played a goalless draw in the second fixture of the day at the ANFA Complex.

Friends’ Club players tried to enter the field with a message to ANFA. They wore black armbands as a protest for ANFA’s failure to provide sufficient support to Sabitra Bhandari ‘Samba’, who was seeking financial support for her second ACL surgery.

However, ANFA officials did not allow Friends’ players to enter the field with the black armbands.

During the game, Friends’ and Chitlang had good chances to register their second win in seven games. But they both failed to score any, and the game ended in a stalemate.

There are three matches scheduled for Wednesday, all to be played at Dasharath Stadium.

Laligurans Association Club and Kankrebihar Youth Club will go head-to-head in the first match at 10am, and Shree Bhagawati Club will face Satdobato Youth Club at 2pm.

Manang Marsyangdi Club and APF FC will play the final game of the day under the floodlights at 6pm.