Debutants Mumbai FC staged a spectacular comeback to beat JCT 3-2 in the ninth round match of the I-League at the Cooperage
Down by two goals, the Mumbai club stages a stunning comeback to beat JCT 3-2 MUMBAI: Debutants Mumbai FC staged a spectacular comeback to beat JCT 3-2 in the ninth round match of the I-League at the Cooperage on Wednesday. The Mumbai club won the match despite being two goals down and, in the process, broke the sequence of four consecutive draws. The win keeps Mumbai FC in sixth place, level on points with Air India, while JCT have 12 points.
Mumbai FC coach David Booth’s gamble of starting with five new players paid rich dividends. In the beginning though, JCT was the dominant side. The visitors could have gone ahead in the 16th minute but were denied by a goal-line clearance by John Benedict, one of the five players to start first time this season. Ten minutes later, the Mumbai side got it first shot on goal but Kalia Kulothungan’s header off Nelson Cardoz’s cross went over the bar.
JCT took the lead in 38th minute after Balwant Singh ran from the left flank and in an attempt to cross the ball lobbed it and was lucky to find the back of the net.
JCT doubled their lead after the break. Balwant Singh made a square pass from the right to Edu, placed the ball beautifully past Mumbai FC custodian Amit Singha Roy to take the score to 2-0 in the 50th minute.
Booth tried to change things and brought on Hammond and Aseem K for Cardoz and Nishant Mehra in the 54th minute. The change of formation (from 4-4-2 to 3-4-3) immediately worked as Hammond pulled one back four minutes later. Riston Rodrigues crossed a curling ball from the left, which was headed by Hammond past JCT custodian Prasanto Dora. Felix headed home the equaliser in the 64th from a Kamaljeet Kumar corner.
It was end-to-end stuff thereon and Balwant could have scored third for the visitors in the 83rd minute. The striker skipped three defenders and though his shot went past the keeper, it hit the post and went out of play.
The miss proved costly as Yadav scored a stunner from 35 yards in the 88th minute to seal the match. Meanwhile, in another I-League match in Panjim, Dempo beat East Bengal by a solitary goal.
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