Odafa saved Bagan from a pitfall. He scored twice in last 4 minutes of the “6 minutes added time”to give Bagan a crucial victory over BNR! Bagan finally won the game by 2-1, thanks to Odafa’s individual brilliance in this thrilling tie at Mohun Bagan ground today.

However Bagan, in search of its form,  picked a bad time here today though in the first half, for the first time in Premiere League the midfield was a formidable one. However, the TD made a change in the second half by replacing Manish with Avinash that helped BNR to come back in the match.

BNR scored in the57th minute when Bagan defense collapsed and Prasenjit made no mistake in scoring for his team. The TD, realising that opportunities and not getting converted into goals – soon fielded Barreto and Odafa . That gave the Green and Maroon brigade some momentum and BNR custodian became more busy.

He had a good time until in the 92nd minute when Odafa scored his first goal, and within couple of minutes Odafa showed his worth to get past almost all of the BNR team to score his second!

Barreto scored a clean goal but the assistant referee rejected the same claiming that Avinash’s cross went out !

In the post match press meet Mariners coach Prasanta Banerjee told that the team have not played well but three points has come and it is the main thing in a League. Now Mohun Bagan will next play against Shillong Lajong FC in an I League encounter on Friday, 2nd December at Imphal. In Sahara CFL McDowell Mohun Bagan will meet Emta Mohammedan Sporting on 8th December at Yuba Bharati Krirangan at 2.00 pm.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Sunil Chhetri will join McDowell Mohun Bagan on 12th December after trial in Scottish Club Rangers and National duty.

Team: Sudipta, Surkumar, Daniel, Kingshuk, Daljit, Sourav, Pradeep(Odafa), Manish(Avinash), Gourango, Sakhatar(Barreto), Ashim 

Scorer – Odafa (2)

Picture Courtesy: AAJKAAL

Mohun Bagan will play against Shillong Lajong in the I League match at Imphal from 1.00 pm on Friday, 2nd December. Due to local political problem the organizer of the match have scheduled the match at 1.00 pm in the after-noon. There is daylight problem as well at Imphal. Mohun Bagan team management has learnt that there will be grass on the ground. Meanwhile, ruling committee of Mohun Bagan AC has been re-elected once again.

Ex-judge Manoranjan Mallick examined the nomination filed for election today. But the number of filed nomination was not more than 20 and number of executive members are also 20. So, it is declared that ruling committee has been re-elected. There are few changes in the executive committee. Ms. Sohini Mitra has been the first female member  of executive committee. Mr. Anjan Kumar Mitra is re-elected as General Secretary and Srinjay Bose as Asst. Gen. Secretary. Debasis Dutta is Finance Seretary and Desha Priya (Swadhin) Mallick is Ground Secretary as the previous tenure. There is inclusion of new member like Soumik Bose, Atin Ghosh.  Uttam Saha is named as Football Secretary and Samrat Bhowmick as Cricket Secretary.

In the Cricket Mohun Bagan defeated Mohammedan Sporting by 256 runs in an A. N. Ghosh Memorial match on Saturday. Brief scores: Mohun Bagan 395/8. Md. Sp. 139/8 (Ramesh Krishnan 41, Sami Ahmed 5/41). Bagan won by 256 runs. Mohun Bagan is at the top of the Group B by winning the both the group matches, whereas Sporting Union and East Bengal have won the one each and they are at the second spot. Mohun Bagan will meet East Bengal at Eden Gardens in the local cricket league Derby on 29-30 November. The top two teams of Group  will advance to the Semi-Final.

McDowell Mohun Bagan will play against BNR at Mohun Bagan Ground on Monday, 28th November in Sahara CFL. Kick-off time – 2:15pm.

Yakubu scored twice as Prayag came from behind twice to beat Mohun Bagan 3-2 in the 7th round of iLeague. Bagan took the lead twice in the game – first in the 24th minute when Snehasish scored and later in the 47th minute when Odafa scored. However , Sankar Oraon (42′) and Yakubu (P- 54′ and 56′) scored for Prayag to ensure they remain unbeaten in the iLeague. This was the second defeat for Bagan – and once again Bagan suffered from the absence of a match fit central midfielder.

Bagan first XI did not have an attacking central midfielder – rather Bagan TD and coach had to depend upon the three strikers. However, in the 15th minute Gouranga replaced the only central midfielder- Pradeep. Thus Bagan at that time had 4 defenders, one left half , two genuine right halves and three strikers. However Snehasish scored from a good move of Surkumar in the 24th minute. Sur gave a cross to Gouranga and Gouranga centred it to Snehasish who made no mistake (1-0). By that time Sangram and Kingshuk saved at least three chances – one of them was a goal line save by Kingshuk.

Prayag kept on attacking and the game was mostly into Bagan’s defensive third for the rest of the first half. At times Bagan was going for counter attacks. But with no genuine central midfielder – Bagan’s defenders started hitting long balls for Odafa , Sunil and Ashim.

Prayag started operating from the central midfield and right half. In the 42nd minute Sankar crossed a ball for Yakubu – whose header hit the post and rebounded. Joshimar made no mistake in converting the same into a goal(1-1)

In the 44th minute Yakubu got another chance but failed to convert the same.

After the lemon break Gouranga crossed from right for Sunil. Sunil’s shot was on target – but got deflected from a Prayag defender and went to Odafa. Odafa converted the same into a goal(2-1)

For next 8 minutes Bagan kept pressure on Prayag defense. However, from a counter attack in the 54th minute the ball hit Kingshuk in Bagan box and referee Md. Kamil awarded a penalty for Prayag. Yakubu took the shot – Sangram failed to save it (2-2)

Prayag kept on pressing Bagan defense and in the 56th minute earned a corner. Yakubu converted that into a goal (2-3)

In the 75th minute the TD had to take Odafa out – and put in Souvik – too late perhaps.

Immediately Prayag put in Subhash by taking Sankar out.  Bagan, failing to capture the central midfield, had another replacement in striker Jagtar for Gouranga.

But these changes were in vain and Prayag did well to defend their lead. The match ended in the 94th minute with Prayag earning 3 points from this game.

Certain questions will perhaps haunt the TD –

a) Had Pradeep been unfit – why didn’t he rely on Murali instead?

b) With absence of Barreto and Jewel why didn’t he field in a genuine central attacking midfielder from the beginning of the game – Manish or Souvik should have been into the team from the beginning instead.

c) Why did he rely on injured Odafa till the 75th minute – particularly when there was no movement in the midfield?

Team :  Sangram, Dhanarajan, Zeleny, Kingshuk, Surkumar, Snehasish, Pradeep(Gouranga 15′(Jagtar 80′))  Nabi, Odafa(Souvik 75′) , Ashim, Sunil.

Goals : Snehasish , Odafa

Yellow Card : Kingshuk