Kolkata: An unusual scene of despair and desolation ruled supreme at the Mohun Bagan club ground as the players practised ahead of the Kolkata derby on Sunday.
Their season that began with a bang after a crucial 1-0 victory against East Bengal in only their second match suddenly seems to have take a wrong turn with just two wins coming in the next five home fixtures and that only a handful of fans turned up at the club ground in Maidan, which would have been usually filled with hundreds in numbers, stood testimony that their campaign haven’t gone swimmingly this term.
It was back in 2013 when the Mariners went into a Kolkata derby at-least six or more points behind arch-rivals East Bengal but since then have gone on to win their first I-League title, while also securing two second place finishes in the next three years. Come Sunday all those however won’t matter as won’t the point table said few die-hard Mariners fans, who also quipped ‘we want a win’ at every sight of a Bagan player.
This phrase has been more truer to the lips than at the field for the century old club this season, where silence prevailed as coach Sankarlal Chakraborty presided over the training. Only Sony Norde was seen practising separate, alone in a corner which was swimmingly needless. After all he decided to part ways with the club immediately after the Kolkata derby. But that Chakraborty had claimed at the pre-match conference that the Haitian international might play, aroused a sense of hope among the fans for a player, who later limped his way back.
Yet garlands adorned his neck as he walked his way out of the club gate perhaps one final time helped by Yuta Kinowaki, another foreign recruit who started in the first derby win of the season but has not turned up at the the ground since then, owing to a shoulder injury.
Bagan however will need a win to survive the wrath of fans more than revive their season which is almost over. “Still a win victory might settle things that are very abrupt at the moment,” said midfielder Cameron Watson to SportsCrunch also adding “revival is far but winning will certainly help.” Hope captivated his eyes as he said those words yet Bagan at the moment seem to be in a stage worse than hopelessness resting their shoulders on new imports.
Never had East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have fielded tow foreigners debuting their season in a Kolkata derby in their past 320 matches that spread over 90 years, but on Sunday Akram Moghrabi and Dudu Omagbemi will achieve the inevitable and add Cameron Watson to that, three new faces will for the first time square-off in a match most watched in Indian football.