COIMBATORE: With Indian Arrows and Gokulam Kerala immune to relegation this football season, Chennai City face an uphill task with three games left as they take on Churchill Brothers here on Saturday.
Soundararajan's men will have to pull off an incredible coup to escape relegation, one that is extremely difficult but not impossible.
Chennai's fate depends on the results elsewhere as well but what the Southerners can do as a first step is to take advantage of Churchill Brothers' back-to-back defeats to obtain three points at their own home ground. Home ground is where Chennai City have struggled this season -- they are yet to win at home.
The fixture involving Churchill is Chennai's sixth straight match at home, a run that has so far yielded four draws and a loss.
The Southerners are running out of time and that makes winning against a team that has just three points more than them even more important.
"We want to win the match in front of our fans in Coimbatore. My players are giving their best. It is not like they aren't trying. They are doing their best but not getting the results. I told them to work hard and they have realised now."
Churchill are seventh on the table and have a game in hand over their opponents. However, after a decent start to the year, Alfred Fernandes has seen his team succumb to two away defeats in their last two games. Indian Arrows struck late to register a comeback win and Neroca scored an 86th minute winner. Churchill will be looking to put an end to the trend of conceding late goals when they play Chennai City.
"It is the business end of the I-League and there are a lot of things involved in the I-League. The season end is always a scary thing. No team is relegated until the last match is played," stated Fernandes.
"Last two matches could have gone either way. In the Arrows match, we were in a winning position until the 90th minute. Two silly errors cost us two goals."
Fernandes' team will be looking to prevent defensive errors against a Chennai City side eager to obtain points at home.