McDowell Mohun Bagan will play against Shillong Lajong FC at Imphal tomorrow. Due to unprepared home ground Shillong Lajong is playing their home match at Imphal instead of Shillong. However, local political issue have created a panic at Imphal. Yesterday, there was a bomb blast at market place at Imphal, which is not too far from the ground where mariners will practice today after-noon and play tomorrow. But AIFF officials have ensured that the match will take place as per schedule.There will be no change in the schedule. I League CEO Mr. Sunanda Dhar will be reaching at Imphal today to take best arrangement for the match. Meanwhile, Manipur Football Association also assure that there will be no problem to held the match at time.

Yesterday, 23 membered McDowell Mohun Bagan team reached to Imphal at after-noon. The team is staying with high security at the team hotel. Before leaving Kolkata Mohun Bagan Coach Prasanta Banerjee told at the Airport that only three points is the target, though it is an away match and home team’s supporters are very noisy, enthusiastic but McDowell Mohun Bagan is only looking for victory. TD Subrata Bhattacharya told from team hotel at Imphal that very ackward situation, curfew, absolutely confined to the hotel and the cold atmosphere, everything is going against Mariners. Only victory can overcome this situation of uneasiness. It has been learnt there is massive water problem in the team hotel as well.

In this season Mohun Bagan already faced a defeat against Lajong FC at Federation Cup. Though TD Subrata told that time the team was not prepared for the big match but now the team has got the shape though there is a lot of injury problem in the team, still the team is at the second spot in the league. The TD is looking for three points from the match.

Mohun Bagan keeps a target of 386 runs for East Bengal in A N Ghosh Trophy group league. Winning the toss Bagan captain Sanjib Sanyal decided to bat first. Anustup Majumdar and Suvomoy Das brilliant century helped Bagan achieve 367 runs in 83 overs. East Bengal was short of 2 overs and Bagan got 18 penalty runs. Thus the target for East Bengal is now 386.

Meanwhile Bagan Football squad for the Lajong match has been announced. The team has –

Shilton, Sangram, Surkumar, Kingshuk, Dhanarajan, Sourav, Zeleny, gouranga, Snehasish, Ashim, Souvik, Odafa, Barreto, Jagtar, Daljit, Manish, Pradeep, Murali
 

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