KOLKATA: Mohun Bagan worked hard to secure a 1-0 win courtesy a strike from the skipper Katsumi Yusa against Sporting Clube de Goa at the Barasat Stadium.
Brandon Fernandes started on the right wing in place of Kean Lewis and Pronay Halder returned to the central midfield replacing Bikramjit Singh. Cornell Glen kept his place in the attack alongside Jeje Lalpekhlua with Balwant Singh only finding a spot on the bench.
Sporting Goa meanwhile had their talisman, Odafa Okolie starting up front with Densill Theobald playing the role of the playmaker in midfield.
Mohun Bagan had their first real chance of the match in the 11th minute following a counter-attack initiated by Sony Norde. Norde cleverly laid it off to an overlapping and unmarked Dhanachandra Singh whose cross towards Glen at the far post went straight towards goal. Arindam Bhattacharya, however, failed to read the situation and his parry almost turned disastrous as it hit the bar and stayed in play. With Glen failing to seize the rebound, it fell to Loveday to clear the danger.
Glen had another chance about ten minutes later as Brandon Fernandes managed to get clear of his marker and delivered a perfect ball to the Trinidad and Tobago striker. However, his header was inches wide much to the relief of Arindam in goal.
Jeje almost opened the scoring for Mohun Bagan at the half hour mark following a Raju Gaikwad delivery in the box from the right. A brilliant first touch allowed him to leave his marker for dead but his snapshot was straight to Arindam who held on gratefully.
Nicholas Fernandes and Ganesh Thakur continued combining well down the left, as Thakur surged in but his piledriver only hit the side netting, with Debjit scrambling, a couple of minutes from the lemon break.
Odafa remained unusually quiet in the first half with his only pop at goal coming before the half hour mark when he dribbled past Luciano Sobrosa only to direct a weak shot straight to Debjit in goal.
Mohun Bagan continued to push for the goal after the restart with Dhanachandra flashing it over on the volley following a corner.
Thakur again released Odafa down the right in the 53rd minute but Debjit Majumder was there at hand as he managed to get to the ball before Odafa could pounce.
Cornell Glen's disappointing outing continued as he was withdrawn for Balwant Singh at the hour mark.
As in the previous match, the former Churchill Brothers' introduction gave a new dimension to the Mariners' attack with Balwant hungry for every loose ball. They had their reward in the 73rd minute after Katsumi found an unmarked Sony down the left wing. Having brought it under his control, the Haitian was quickly surrounded by white shirts and had to check to make space. Finding no space for a shot, he opted to loop it over the far post, beating Arindam. As Jeje missed the ball, Katsumi made no such mistake on the far post and smashed it in past a hapless Arindam to open Bagan's account.
Odafa had a chance to prove his doubters wrong in the 80th minute when he sprinted onto a long ball, beating Luciano for pace. With Debjit out of his line, he only had to chip it over the Mohun Bagan custodian. However, he only managed to hit it straight to Debjit.
Sony Norde continued to display sublime footwork down the left with the Flaming Oranje did all but gave up on the match, as the match did not see any more goals.
The victory allows Mohun Bagan to extend their lead at the top by three points over Bengaluru FC and Mumbai FC's defeat meant that Sporting Clube de Goa are still occupying the fourth place with 11 points.
