Mohun Bagan returned to winning ways defeating Royal Wahingdoh FC 2-0 to keep their title hopes alive in the I-League football tournament at the Barasat Stadium, on Wednesday.
Mohun Bagan returned to winning ways defeating Royal Wahingdoh FC 2-0 to keep their title hopes alive in the I-League football tournament at the Barasat Stadium, on Wednesday.
Having missed a flurry of chances, Mohun Bagan finally broke the deadlock in the 36th minute Pritam Kotal's goal bound cross dipped and beat the goalkeeper finding back of the net. Sony Norde made amends for some costly misses when the Haitian recruit sealed the win with a swerving free-kick in the 63rd minute to ensure full points for the green and maroon brigade.
Their first win from four matches enabled Mohun Bagan to again go atop the table by virtue of better goal difference despite having logged same number of points with Bengaluru FC (35 each). In pursuit for their first league title since 2001-02, Mohun Bagan next face Sporting Clube de Goa (May 23) here in the penultimate round before concluding their campaign in Bengaluru (May 31) as the two teams will battle it out for the title.
The goal came out of the blue for the green-and-maroon brigade, whose frontmen lacked finishing skills even as they held a greater share of the possession early on. Sony Norde, Jeje Lalpekhula and Balwant Singh all had at least two chances each but all went abegging.
The Haitian forward wasted two chances in two minutes in front of the net and in the 23rd minute Katsumi Yusa was brought down on top of the box. Norde's shot from the resulting freekick was missed the target by a few inches. With Mohun Bagan looking to get the upperhand with constant raids, Royals almost took the lead from the counter when Kim Seng-Yong raided the home team with the backline nowhere in sight.
Thankfully for Mohun Bagan, the Korean's strike landed straight to Shilton Paul. Nothing going their way, Mohun Bagan went ahead with Kotal angular powerful shot. Mohun Bagan could have doubled their lead but Balwant and Jeje both had sloppy outings for the slender lead at the break.
The spirited debutants on the other hand looked threatening on the counter attack but luck swayed Mohun Bagan's favour with Shilton Paul coming in the way of the Shillong outfit. Mohun Bagan doubled the lead when Norde smashed one home from a freekick just outside the box. A minute after scoring the goal, Royal missed two back to back sitters with Bekay Bewar and Loveday Enyinnaya disappointing the Santosh Kashyap team who remained on 30 points from their penultimate match.
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