Kolkata: Having lost the opening match of the Calcutta Football League against Patha Chakra, Mohammedan Sporting football club was under enormous pressure to win the next match in order to remain in the title race for CFL.
Playing Tollygunge Agragami in their second match of the campaign, they bounced back in style, thrashing Tollygunge by 5 goals to win the match 5-1 on Thursday at the Barasat Stadium.
Having signed as many as 20 new players for the season, Mohammedan Sporting was expected to begin their campaign with an emphatic win, however succumbed to a defeat at the hands of minnows Patha Chakra losing 4-2 in a disappointing match, where the players looked out of touch and no proper co-ordination was seen among the players. Last season’s top goal scorer in the I-League Dipanda Dicka was the only spark in an otherwise disappointing show by the players. The star forward scored two goals and is expected to carry the team over the line in most of the matches.
Facing Tollygunge, the desperation for a win was clearly visible in the attitude of the players, starting to attack right from the first minute. The first goal came as early as the eight minute when Tollygunge goalkeeper Jhantu Mondal failed to hold on a long ball, with Sheikh Faiaz heading the ball into the empty goal to put the Black Panthers ahead in the match.
However, despite all the attacks , Mohammedan Sporting could not increase their lead, with the first half ending at 1-0. The scoreline could have easily been 3-0 , but star striker Dipanda Dicka failed to score a couple of sitters to increase the goal tally.
Dipanda Dicka (Image credit- Sounak Choudhury/SportsCrunch)
The second half started on a similar note for the Sporting players as the 11 time CFL winners continued their offence on the Agragami box. Another failure to clear a long ball by Tollygunge goalie Mondal saw Jiten Murmu score through a simple tap-in to make it 2-0 for the Black Panthers.
The flood-gates soon opened as the Tollygunge defence failed to hold back the onslaught by the Sporting attackers.
A great run in the box by midfielder Dipendu Dowari in the 57th minute saw him beat the goalkeeper, however his shot took a deflection of the nearest defender to go into the net and make it a 3-0 for Mohammedan Sporting.
The third goal put the Tollygunge club out of the match as the rest of the game saw Mohammedan Sporting add two more goals to their tally to complete a dominating win over the Tollygunge Agragami.
Bengal forward Jiten Murmu scored his second goal for the club, to make it 4-0 for the club after shooting a wonderful long ball from Thoi into the goal. Debutant Debasish Pradhan also scored a goal after coming on as a substitute in place of Dicka, who had an off-day on duty. Coming on from the bench Pradhan scored a well – timed goal in the 92nd minute to finish the match with a high five for the black Panthers.
Top goal scorer of the I-League Dipanda Dicka however could not live up to the expectations after scoring a brace in his first match for the club. He failed to make a mark in the game and was duly replaced by coach Biswajit for defender Debasish Pradhan. Dicka who is expected to lead the line for the black panthers in the CFL would definitely look to get back in touch before the next match on Sunday.
Mohammedan Sporting next take on Southern Samity in their next match in the CFL and will look to continue their winning run in the tournament.