However, last season Churchill Brothers looked lost at the Cooperage, as if dancing to Ghosh’s tunes. Ghosh made Odafe ineffective by instructing his players to mark him hard and distract the striker’s focus to destroy Churchill any chance of starting a build-up. The ploy worked as Odafe lost his cool following consistent hard tackles on him, losing his concentration in the bargain. So did the team and as a result, they lost the battle.

Ghosh has often employed the same strategy against arch-rivals Mahindra in their derby battles in the local elite-division clashes and has had impressive success to show for it.

The Air-India coach has the same task ahead of him on Sunday and says, “We won’t forget that Churchill Brothers had thrashed Mahindra United here (at the Cooperage) with their pace and attacking football. We definitely have to counter that.”

Ghosh is a maverick with a footballing brain. An authority on set pieces, he plays his football for results, not for viewers. If he had the luxury of star players he would opt for flair and finesse. But Ghosh takes his opponents from match to match. With his throw-in expert Uttam Singh out due to a double booking, he will look for alternatives in Dhanachandra Singh. Also after nursing an ankle injury, Suley Musah will be back in the side to block the Churchill attack.

Ghosh says, “Churchill Brothers are a good team. Though Odafe is out due to a double booking, they will still be tough nuts to crack. We have to chalk out a plan like last year and stick to it.”

Much of Air-India’s attacking and defending formation changes with time and situations. Ghosh is a great gambler who does not flinch from taking his chances if he is confident a defender or midfielder is capable of pulling off a surprise if pressed into the role of a striker. It is one of the reasons that Air-India’s defender Santosh Koli has found the net on many occasions. And though his striker Samson Singh is ruled out due to a red card, he has put his hopes on the Cameroonian striker Njoh Jean.

He is held in high esteem as much as he is feared for his surprises. Ghosh, who was declared Indian football coach of the year after Air-India’s impressive performance in the early years of the NFL, is forthright and never shies from calling a spade a spade. He pointed out that his main goalkeeper, Raju Ekka made a ‘big blunder’ against Sporting clube de Goa in a match which they lost 0-1. Ghosh is planning to rest Ekka until he finds his confidence back and until then, Sarath EC is slated to guard the fort.

Ghosh has earned admiration from every corner of the country for his coaching ability and keeping a low budget team in the limelight for over a decade, except for a brief period when they fell a rung and were demoted to the NFL Div II, but they soon bounced back.