Aizwal: Shillong Lajong overcame defending champions Aizwal to win the first North-eastern derby of the season. After much hype was made of the battle between two of the youngest teams in the league, both however failed to inspire lacking the final quality ball combined with poor finishing upfront. Lajong though managed to put one behind, thanks to Redeem Tlang’s rebound goal leading the away team to a 1-0 victory at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Aizwal on Monday.
Playing at the fortress where they collected 25 out of possible 27 points last season, Aizwal was expected to light up the encounter, but squandered numerous chances that proved a little too costly in the end. The match was yet to get in flow when Japanese Yugo Kobayashi, missed an early chance in the ninth minute. H Lalmuankima’s beautiful pass after starting the move all by himself found Kobayashi, who failed to score from a touching distance.
As bad as a tap-in, the chance seems to have set a standard for the rest to follow with both teams guilty of missing a string of chances in the first-half. The 34th minute saw Yemenese midfielder Al-Hagri ran past the entire Aizwal defence but his tame shot was easily collected by rival custodian Avilash Paul. Minutes later the Al-Hagri had another shot on goal, but just like the first opportunity, the second was too tame to threaten Aizwal.
The break seemed to have revitalised both the sides, Lajong in particular was brighter, eventually breaking the deadlock at the one-hour mark. Al-Hagri who had been threatening all afternoon once again ran clear. His resulting shot was however blocked by the Aizwal defence, with Tlang scoring on the rebound. The Khasi winger had another chance moments later, only for Avilash to palm away the ball.
Desperate to hold on their unbeaten spree at home, coach Paul Menezes threw Andrei Ionescu into the fold. The tall Romanian attacker however failed to inspire as Aizwal succumbed to their first defeat of the season, while Shillong Lajong won their first away game moving to second position with 10 points from five matches.