Biswas blast for Bagan

January 18: Dipendu biswas's 27th minute strike left hosts Mahindras stunned and was enough for Mohun Bagan to collect three points in a Phi...

January 18: Dipendu biswas8217;s 27th minute strike left hosts Mahindras stunned and was enough for Mohun Bagan to collect three points in a Philips National Football League match played here at the Cooperage today.

The victory put Bagan 14 points on the top of the table with FC Kochin 13 and Air-India 13 close behind.

The solitary goal came when Bagan medio Amit Das collected the ball after Mahindras defender Sanjay Dayal had saved Das8217; well placed shot to Mahindras custodian Manoj Jaggi8217;s left. Das put the same ball to big Nigerian Chima Okerie whose low floater to Biswas resulted in the goal.

The highlight of the match was splendid goalkeeping by 19-year-old Jaggi, Mahindras8217; number two custodian. He thwarted at least six Bagan attempts with his fine reflexes. The confidant 8216;keeper showed good anticipation and did not hesitate to come out of his territory to challenge strikers Chima, Biswas and Abdul Khalique.

It was the same old recital for the jeepmen. There was no application of coach Deryck de Sousa8217;s ideas. The depleted side 8212; with defender Sushanta Mazumdar, Sanjay Rawal and only goal scorer Herbert Philip with two bookings sitting out 8212; could not take the advantage of favourable breeze after the lemon-break. Only seasoned campaigner Santosh Kashyap did well, thrice testing Bagan custodian Hemanta Dora8217;s confidence. There were innumerable misses. Defender Lachman Bisht was dribbled past by all the Bagan strikers on many occasion. Ex-TFA graduate Abhay Kumar was more interested in dodging the players or running with the ball than concentrating on attack.

Bagan controlled the game from the start. Their mid-field consisting of Satyajit Chaterjee, who later won the man-of-the-match award, along with Amit Das and Debjit Ghosh did a good job of supplying passes and switching ends.

In the 10th minute, Das put a through pass to Biswas in the box. Jaggi, who played his last match in the DCM tournament almost three months ago, thwarted the striker. Ten minutes later, he was again the savior for the jeepmen. Chima8217;s free-kick, which was deflected off a defender, caught Jaggi off-balance. But the teenager stretched fully to stop the ball.

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Bagan coach, T K Chathunny will be missing two important players for the next game against FC Kochi. Both Khalique and defender Ranjan Dey have two bookings each. But he was not happy with the kind of football that was displayed in the 90 minutes. 8220;Our finishing was poor, we could have converted at least six chances.8221; Refusing to give the credit to Jaggi, Chathunny blamed his own strikers.

Mahindras defender Onyeka Okafor also did a commendable job of keeping Chima quiet, not allowing him to take strike. But the main difference between two teams was in the mid-field. Bagan8217;s mid-field was instrumental in keeping the ball in possession and were constantly on the move, which was missing with the hosts.