Kolkata: The chants of ‘Sanjoy Sen go back’ just got louder at the Maidan of Tuesday when over 10000 odd fans were left stunned as Mohun Bagan succumbed to a 2-1 loss, their first this season against a 10 men Chennai City at the club ground in Kolkata.
Playing against a club that came into existence two years after Bagan had won their first I-League title in 2014, the players lacked the urgency in attacks often giving up the ball too cheaply in the midfield, an error that led to first goal, early in the match.
The match had just began and was yet to get in flow when a Jean Joachim stunner left the Maidan silent as early as the sixth minute. The move started after Sourav Das lost the ball to Murilo Almeida, who cleared the Bagan defense before passing it for the Frenchman Joachim to score.
0-1 down within the first few minutes the restless Bagan fans chanted ‘attack’ in unison as the Mainers made a flurry of those in the next few minutes with Ansumana Kromah coming the closest in the 29th minute when his shot rattled the bar.
Bagan however soon equalised courtesy a penalty, their only source of goal in the last four encounters. Chennai defender Pradeep Mohanraj was shown a straight red for handling a goal-mouth ball in the box and Kromah scored from the resultant spot kick, his first since that 5-1 win against Churchill.
With a man down in the opening half itself, the visitors however did not let their hopes jitter and kept fighting, winning almost every second ball against a Bagan side that looked weak in physicality while also tooth-less in attacks. Their persistence finally paid off in the 71st minute when defender Veniamin Shumeiko rose above the entire Mariners defense to head the ball past a hapless Shilton Pal from a Soosai Raj corner.
It was also for the second time in successive matches that the former I-League champions failed to make that additional man count as they let another home match slip out of their hands. The loss also meant that Bagan have now gone four matches without a win at home.
Things soon became sour after the match as the fans turned hostile towards both coach Sanjoy Sen and the Bagan players for letting them down against the unfancied opponents.
The Mariners however remained fifth with 10 points from seven outings. Similarly Chennai City too remained eight with the seven points from the same number of matches.