Bagan scrape through against FC Kochin

Both sides took the pitch beleaguered with injuries and drooping spirits. Mohun Bagan, with the defeat to Churchill Brothers still rankling, struggled to come to terms with themselves. Kochin, missing captain Dhanesh and first-choice goalkeeper Ali Abubaker and struggling to avoid their fourth successive defeat in the NFL this season, retained little of their exuberance of youth.

Under the circumstances, a scrappy first-half hardly surprised anyone. Players on either side were tenacious, marking was tight and play confined to mid-field, was generally boring.

While the first-half ended mercifully for the spectators, it didn’t for Chima Okerie, Bagan’s fading Nigerian star striker. A pulled hamstring muscle, plaguing him for sometime now, acted up again. But the quirk led to Bagan’s good fortune.

Okerie, stretchered off on the do of half-time, was replaced by Vijayan and the international did the team’s bidding in the second-half as Bagan stepped up their game a notch or two.

He threatened with Ancheri in tandem at the outset of the session. He thereafter earned a yellow card for elbowing defender Mahesh Gawli during a flag-kick, but enthusiasm unbridled, brought relief to the Calcutta side with the all-important goal. Satyajit Chatterjee took a flag-kick. The Kochin defence, vulnerable as ever, allowed Vijayan to head home at the far post.

Vijayan, long suffering from a leg-injury and still not quite fit, struck the post in the 70th minute, before Kochin made a late charge to level scores.

But striker Nitin Pradhan should have done much better with a header after wing-back Prabhjot Singh, striving manfully despite a calf-injury, sent in a fine cross after a good run on the right flank.

So should have Vijayan, on the other side of the pitch as full time beckoned. Playing against his former club, he fired across the goal mid-fielder Amit Das’ pass.