A Muritala Ali in the first half and an Ashim Biswas in the second half helped Bagan move into 8th position and consolidated their position in the iLeague as Mumbai FCwere brushed aside at Yuva Bharati Krirangan. Victory provided Bagan players with a required confidence they were in search of since beginning of the iLeague this year. But it was Shilton Pal who played yet another brilliant game to save Bagan from conceding any goal. Shilton was rightly adjudged Man of the Match.

In the 1st minute of added time in the first half Muritala Ali got a header from Jose Barreto and converted that to a goal. In the 78th minute Ashim Biswas got a loose ball when Mumbai FC goalie tried to clear a ball – and his 20 yards power shot got his first goal in this season ( not to forget his clean goal was wrongly cancelled by the referee in Federation Cup final this year)

Ishfaq Ahmed, who was there as a left back, made some good moves, but Sk. Azim had a busy day today along with Rahul Kumar and in few occasions they were outperformed by Mumbai FC forward line. Shilton did really well each time. He was beaten only once in the first half.

Jose Barreto needs to improve his understanding with Muritala Ali – and convert opportunities to goals as he used to do few years back. But the coach and the TD will have to work hard at the central midfield and right half position.

Bagan is now having 8 points from 6 matches and will meet Viva Kerala on 4th January 2011 at Kannur.

Mohun Bagan :Shilton, Rahul, Azim, Dhanarajan, Isfaq, Manish, Gouranga(Ashim), Snehasish, Jayanta, Muritala(Souvik), Barreto.
Mumbai FC:Ishan, Keegan, Anas, Quao, Nicholas, Nishat, Noel, Bungo(Lalampuia), Kuttimani( Ashutosh), Sukore, Henry

MOM: Shilton Pal (Mohun Bagan)

 

Picture Courtesy: Bartaman

Mohun Bagan is going to take Mumbai FC on their 6th encounter of the i-league 2010-11 at Salt Lake stadium, Kolkata. Before going into the inner edge of the preview let’s have a quick look at the previous encounters involving these two teams in the i-league.

 So far so good for the Mumbai outfits as far as the data sheet (given below)is concerned. Being in the early era of their history they have pulled some outstanding performances and again they have started this edition of i-league with such a fine way, especially after getting three consecutive victories in the opening rounds.  But the story has slightly changed after conceding a 1:5 defeat to Churchil. It seemed that the boys were unable to get rid of the “Odafa-lag” and succumbed to Dempo Sc, another contestant for the title.

Season	Date	Venue	Home Team	Score	Away Team
2008-09	27th Sept 2008	Barasat	Mohun Bagan	1:2	Mumbai FC
2008-09	23rd Jan 2009	Mumbai	Mumbai Fc	0:3	Mohun Bagan
2009-10	2nd Nov 2009	Barasat	Mohun Bagan	1:2	Mumbai FC
2009-10	28th May 2010	Mumbai	Mumbai Fc	2:0	Mohun Bagan

	Performance of Mohun Bagan	Performance of Mumbai FC
1st Round	1:1 Draw with Pune FC at Pune	2:1 Victory over Air India at Mumbai
2nd Round	1:2 Defeat to HAL at Kolkata	2:0 Victory over Pune FC at Kolhapur
3rd Round	0:2 Defeat to Churchil at Goa	1:0 Victory over HAL at Kolhapur
4th Round	2:2 Draw with Dempo at Kolkata	1:5 Defeat to Churchil at Kolhapur
5th Round	1:0 Victory over JCT at Ludhiana	0:1 Defeat to Dempo at Goa

	Mohun Bagan	Mumbai Fc
Current standing in the i-league	8th	4th
Match played	5	5
Matches won	1	3
Matches lost	2	2
Matches drawn	2	0
Goals scored	5	6
Goals conceded	7	7
Goal difference	-2	-1
Success rate at home	0% against Mumbai FC	50% against Mohun Bagan
Success rate at away	50% against Mumbai FC	100% against Mohun Bagan

New appointed coach Sujit Chakraborty has joined to his new job in McDowell Mohun Bagan as the coach. He left ONGC due to national club duty as he said it was hard to avoid the call from club like Mohun Bagan. He told that all the coaches have their dream to serve Kolkata’s big club like Mohun Bagan.

Mohun Bagan T.D. Subhas Bhowmick called a after-noon practice on sunday where Sujit joined as coach and started his job. In the practice Bagan T.D. was busy with practice with defense players mainly while new coach was looking for other members of the team.

Chakraborty asked for a physical trainer for whole season as he admitted that in a marathon league there must be injury but there should be a physical trainer to avoid the injury circumstances and inured player to get fit fast. Finance Secretary Debasish Dutta agreed with him and he told from the next season there will be full timed physical trainer with the team.

After asking about the the weakness of the team Mohun Bagan, he told that defence is very weak of the team as it needs to improve to find some big-bodied defender for the team. About Diamondstar, he is not so optimist regarding his quality.

Barreto, Chidi, Muritala did not pratice with others today, Barreto and Chidi was in the side line while Muritala had a gym session. Muritala and Chidi both will go under MRI scan on Monday. Though Chidi admitted that he is getting fit gradually.

Due to late attendance in practice Goalkeeper coach Hemanta Dora was fined by T.D. Subhas Bhowmick Rs.1000/-.

Picture  Courtesy: Bartaman

Mohun Bagan was one of the eight clubs that failed to meet FIFA and AFC guidelines – as reported by AFC on 1st week of November. The AFC sent a team of experts in late October to check if the clubs were meting the criteria as per FIFA and AFC guidelines.”AFC has zeroed in on the cross-ownership issue of Bagan and East Bengal. If this matter is not resolved within the next two months, they could be scrapped from the I-League 2011-12,” I-League CEO Sunando Dhar said after a meeting between AFC delegates and AIFF officials in New Delhi on 2nd November 2010. Both clubs had Dr. Vijay Mallya as their Chairman and Director. Mr. Sidhartha V. Mallya has been appointed as an Additional Director of United Mohun Bagan Football Team Pvt. Ltd. to meet FIFA and AFC guidelines weeks before the deadline of 2 months.

A 19-member Mohun Bagan squad left for Ludhiana this morning to play the 5th I-league round against JCT – to be held on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2010. The team includes (alphabetical order): Ashim Biswas, Biswajit Saha, Dhanrajan R., Gouranga Dutta, Harpreet Singh, Ishfaq Ahmed, Jayanta Sen, Jose Barreto, Karan Atwal, Manish Maithani, Najimuddin Mollick, Rahul Kumar, Sangram Mukherjee, Satish Kumar (Jr.), Shilton Paul, Sk. Azim, Snehasish Chakraborty, Souvik Chakraborty, Subair Muritala Ali.
Chidi Edeh and Sagram Mandi were left out because of injuries.
Technical Director Subhash Bhowmick, Goalkeeper coach Hemanta Dora, Dr. Pratim Roy and  Masseur Gobinda Raj accompanied the team. Mohun Bagan is having a discussion to finalise the ‘A’ License coach by 30th Deember. The probables include Sujit Chakrabarty and Subrata Bhattacharya (Jr.).

 

No Indian club treasures its history more than Mohun Bagan about the team’s recent performance against Dempo SC is a mixed one. Bagan won against Dempo in the last match in Federation cup semi-final but failed to register its win against the defending Champions today as the match ended in a 2-2 draw. Bagan’s lowest point in iLeagues is generally agreed to be this year ( 1 point from 3 matches) before Subhash Bhowmick walked in as a Technical Director. The last match was away from home with Bagan going down 0-2. This evening, Bagan were at home, they were playing a formidable opponent and managed to split points.

That Dempo would commit every fibre of their being to the contest was predictable. That they would be the better side for swathes of the afternoon was not. Dempo, the club that has won the iLeague Cup more than any other, had to rely on  Ranty and Cliffton goals while for Bagan it was Muritala and Barreto. Shilton Paul, grossly criticised for his gallary show against Kingfisher East Bengal, saved Bagan from humiliation. But before that – Barreto messed with a penalty shoot out – which will haunt him for some time – and might remind him of last couple of seasons when he missed penalties.

Subhash Bhowmick changed the team a bit – handed over the gloves back to Shilton, brought back Azim, filled up the midfield with genuine midfielders and changed his strategy from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3.

Muritala scored the first goal in the 8th minute from a pass from Nazimuddin. In the 27th minute Barreto was tripped inside the penalty box by Noronha – and Bagan got a penalty. But Kuttimani saved Barreto’s shot.

Azim played really well to stop Ranty and Cliffton until 36th minute. A Shilton mistake became costly as Cliffton scored from a Carvalho pass – Azim failed to stop the move! Azim was replaced by Karan Atwal at the beginning of the second half. From 50th minute to 60th minute Dempo really kept pressure on Bagan defense- and during this period Shilton saved at least 3 goals.

Ashim replaced Gouranga in the 60th minute, and then Bagan started moving up a bit.

In the 75th minute Godwin Franco replaced Cliffton. In the 78th minute Shilton saved a Beto shot – and the ball went to Nicolas Borges – and his pass to unmarked Ranty made the damage for Bagan. Bagan immeditely came back into the match as Barreto scored in the 80th minute.Shilton then saved couple of more attempts by Dempo.
Shilton has been awarded the Man of the Match.

Mohun Bagan : Shilton, Azim (Karan), Dhanarajan, Rahul, Nazimuddin, Jayanta, Snehasish, Gouranga(Ashim), Souvik, Barreto, Muritala.

Dempo : Kattimani, Dias, Debabrata, Pixoto, Carvalho, Borges, Beto, Kalu, Norhonha, Cliffton (Franco), Ranty.
Yellow cards for Bagan – Sk. Azim, Jayanta Sen

 Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/mohunbaganclub

Picture Courtesy : Aajkaal

Subhash Bhowmick is appointed as the Technical Director of McDowell Mohun Bagan. Here is to say that yesterday Stanley Rozario, the ex-coach of McDowell Mohun Bagan resigned because of continuous poor performance of the team and the officials were finding the new coach for the team. There were few names on their pad but they appointed Subhas Bhowmick as the Technical Director of the team. Coach will be another person who has the AFC “A” license.

 

Subhash Bhowmick kept his cool in a Press Meet organised in the Club tent at 5 pm today. He did not promise much but definitely showed faith upon his team. The club has not announced the name of his Deputy – however he spent some good amount of time today with all the players.

Following are what fans said about the decision –

"subhash da ,welcome./..apnar haat dhorei abar bangal der 5 goal marbo" – Somak Ghosh @ Facebook

"Subhas r hath dhorei amra ghure darabo ei ashai rakhi.Ar bahu din dhorei I League amader starting ta erokomi hachhe.Ekhan thekeo ghure danrano jai sudhu chai sodichha.Hopefully Subhas Da amader sei poth e niye jaben.Joy MB" – Dipanjan Chatterjee @ Facebook

"Subhas da best of luck 4 upcoming Dempo match…………amra tomar sath a a6i….." – Debasis Sarkar @ Facebook

"All the best to Subhash and Mohun Bagan. Amra ghure daraboi. Joy Mohun Bagan." – Dr. Raj Shankar Ghosh @ Facebook

"subhas bhowmick …er haat dhorei asa kori …abar sei … sabuj maroon dhojo tule dhrbo amra……..bhombol …da asa kori … amader sei bharakranto mon ke dure soriye rekhe … sohosrodol e giye mathe hajir hobo ….. amader sei joyogathe jeno bojay thaake … bhombol da … asa kori …joy er mukh dekhaben ….eituku bhorsa roilo ….. joy mohunbagan ….." – Saptak Ghosh @ Facebook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

McDowell Mohun Bagan received a resignation letter from the Chief Coach of senior football team Stanley Rozario today. After continuous failure of the football team Stanley was under pressure to step down from his job and the time has come after the Churchill match. Bagan lost to Churchill by 0-2 yesterday in an away encounter. Bagan is now trailing with 1 only point from 3 matches. Resignation letter is given herewith.

Here is the letters from McDowell Mohun Bagan and Stanley Rozario.

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have recieved a letter dated 13th December 2010 by Email from our Chief Coach Mr. Stanly Rozario which is appended below. This is for your information.

Regards,

Anjan Kumar Mitra

Managing Director

McDowell Mohun Bagan

—————————————————–

Dated: 13th December 2010

Mr. Anjan Kr. Mitra

Managing Director

McDowell Mohun Bagan

Kolkata

Dear Sir,

It is my immense pleasure to have worked as the Chief Coach of McDowell Mohun Bagan Football Team for the last several months from June 2010, during which the Team performed extremely well and reached the finals of the Federation Cup by defeating top teams like Salgaocar 6-1 and Dempo SC in the semis and lost to East Bengal due to referee’s poor decisions. In the Platinum Jubilee Cup, the Team once again gave a wonderful performance by defeating Sheffield FC of England and lost via tie-breaker in the final match. In the Calcutta Football League, we stood runners-up. So in all three tournaments the Team stood Runners-up. However during this entire period, many vital players got injured and got sickness eg. Diamondstar of Asian origin played only few matches and got injured. Chidi Edeh was also having injury and with that he tried his level best. Apart from this Sk. Azim, Ishfaq, Sagram, Kinshuk and Satish Kumar were unavailable due to injuries and sickness for many days which affected the team performance.

With these injury problems we started the I League, still the team played well against Pune FC at Pune and drew the match 1-1 after unfortunately squandering many simple chances to score and win by a handsome margin. The team conceded a goal in the 82nd minute of a defensive lapse. Losing to HAL, Bangalore was a disaster and a great disappointment for all of us. Still we started well in the away game against strong Churchill Brothers. But we conceded an early goal in the very 3rd minute which killed the momentum and the spirit of the game. But boys tried their level best and created many chances but could not able to utilize and we lost the match by 2-0 of a poor penalty decision of Referee.

Since Mohun Bagan is a formidable club and top contenders in Indian Football, I want the Team should bounce back and bring back the winning attitude. So in this point of time in the greater interest of the Club and the Team, I would like to step down from my job as Chief Coach.

I would like to thank with all my heart the President, Mr. S.S. Bose, Mr. Debashis Dutta as well as you and all the Executive Committee members of the Club for having faith in me and believing in me and for giving me an opportunity to coach the Football Team. I also thank Hemanta Dora, Satyabrata Bhowmick, Dr. Pratim Ray, Prince Rufus and other support staff for their cooperation and support. My special thanks to the supporters and members of Mohun Bagan for encouraging me and helping me to do well in all these tournaments. I would like to thank the Media for their cooperation and motivation.

My heartfelt thanks to all the players for their hard work and determination as well as love and affection shown to me. My best wishes and prayers for all the players and the Team for a successful season ahead and future.

Warm Regards,

Stanly Rozario M.

 Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/mohunbaganclub

Bagan coach Stanley Rosario got an opportunity to save his job – but this was his worst week this season. First Bagan went down 1-2 against HAL at home on the 8th and in 4 days Bagan went down 0-2 to Churchill Brothers in Goa. A lack of creativity, poor match reading and ideas ended up in a very poor 1st three rounds of the 4th iLeague for Bagan. The trophyless coach whose team was relegated from the iLEague last year in spite of playing the Federation Cup final, would find it difficult to save his job this season.

Chidi is half-fit – nursing injuries – and Barreto is perhaps no more a 90 mins player. Any good coach will make sure both of the them are used in such a way that they become effective. But, the coach seems to have different ideas. Manish was a failure as a snatcher and a blocker today – but was there in the ground for 80 mins. Ashim replaced Biswajit though Ishfaq had to be there in the ground (he replaced Gouranga). One wonders why Jayanta was there for only 10 minutes.

One wonders if the coach has ever spoken to the defense – corrected their mistakes, told Manish exactly what he should do – remind Muritala that this is a team game! One wonders if there were any plan B or plan C in case Bagan concedes a goal at the beginning of the game. One wonders whether Bagan coach had any plan A at all!

A poor decision of taking Diamondstar out in Federation Cup final was costly – but Bagan coach did not learn a lesson. Its time he puts down his papers for the fan and supporters have lost faith in him. With Sukhwinder looking for a job, David Booth  and Phillip de Rider available, Subhash Bhowmick sitting idle – Bagan officials will have to keep aside their differences and ego and take a decision to save the team and take necessary actions – for we have 23 more rounds to go!

Team:

Mohun Bagan: Shilton, Biswajit Saha (Ashim Biswas), Rahul Kumar, Harpreet, Dhanrajan, Gouranga (Ishfaq), Manish (Jayanta), Barreto, Snehasis, Chidi, Muritala Ali
 

Mohun Bagan will take on HAL today at Salt Lake Stadium in their first home match in i-League 2010-11 campaign. Mariners need to display more defensive consolidation along with aggresive attitude to earn full 3 points.

For the mariners, it has been a year of mixed fortune with patches of brilliant outings followed by pretty ordinary display. Runners up in all 3 tournaments (including an invitation tournament) in this year so far, by no means, can be evaluated as ‘living up to the expectation’ for the squad and for the team management of national club of India.

Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/mohunbaganclub

Mohun Bagan maintains the record of not winning their first iLeague match. A late equalizer denied the Mariners to earn full 3 points from the away match. However, the team will return home with lot of positive from this game.

Partly cloudy sky with 25^o C temperature, 64% humidity and floodlit Balewadi stadium – the stage was perfectly set for an entertaining encounter. Pune FC, the home team, started with a distinct psychological advantage as they were backed by full house local supporters.  For the Mariners, opening encounters in i-league have always been the nightmare in recent past. And this statistics was at the back of the mind when get into the game. Hence they were cautious not to get into the pressure by being at the receiving end.

After the initial ice breaking moment, the mariners slowly get into the attacking mode by effectively using the both flanks. In the process, they earned couple of corners and free kicks. However, they had to wait till 33^rd minute when Snehasis broke the impasse with a brilliant shot from a direct free kick (1-0). The goal changed the entire complexion of the game as both the team stated showing their attacking intent. It was PFC who got more physical and the match official had to use the yellow card to control the temper of PFC players. However, the same saga of getting physical continued by the PFC players as they tried to put more pressure the mariners.

 As the game progressed into the second half, PFS went all out to break the jinx. On the other hand, the Mariners were unlucky as the opposition cross bar and bar post denied them to increase the lead for 3 times. On 82^nd minute, PFC got a corner and the ace striker, Arata, equalized with his accurate header (1-1). For a moment Bagan’s defense had a lapse in concentration and paid the price. Once the score is level and as the crowd became more and more noisy, PFC tried to take full advantage of the situation to take the advantage of somewhat nervous shaky movements by the Mariners. Stanley made couple of injury minute substitutions (Ishfaq and Ashim came in place of Gouranga and Muritala) as the referee; Mr. Suresh blew the long whistle after the three minutes of extra time. Chidi was decleared ‘Man of the Match’.

Today’s match – fact sheet at a glance

pponent team	Pune FC
Date	3-Dec-10
Venue	Balewaadi Stadium, Pune
Kick off time	7:00 PM
No. of goal Mohun Bagan scored	1 (Snehasis 33′)
Opponent scored	1 (Arata, 82′)
Number of yellow card shown to MB Players	1 (Muritala)
Number of red cards shown to MB players	0
Average age of 1st XI	25.1 yrs
Average age of the squad (registered for iLeague)	23.3 yrs
1st half Score	1 – 0
Style of formation	4 – 4 – 2
Substitutions
1	Ishfaq in place of Gouranga (89′)
2	Asim in place of Muritala (93′)

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