Mumbai: ATK’s season that seemed dead suddenly looked to have resurrected with the coming of Robbie Keane and Ryan Taylor, helping the defending champions clinch a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Mumbai City at the Mumbai Football Arena on Sunday. Boosted by the arrival of both the English Premier League stars ATK looked a completely different side with Robing Singh eventuay scoring the winning goal in the 54th minute.
Playing at the arena where ATK have been undefeated since 2015, the current champions got off to a flyer start with Tom Thorpe nearly giving them a lead in the 17th minute. Moments later Rupert Nongrum came close, but failed to beat Amrinder, who came off his line to save the shot.
Mumbai on the other hand have been unbeaten at home since 2016, but struggled to maintain formation against a team that was 10th in the table before the match started. Keeping more of the ball ATK formulated numerous attacks, forcing Amrinder into multiple saves in the first-half.
For a team just has failed to find the back of the net more then once let one a win, coach Teddy Sheringham had asked for improvements in all departments to earn a win against the ‘Islanders’ and boy their response was something that will send the away fans back home with confidence. Debjit Majumdar who had shipped in all seven goal conceded by ATK, seemed to have baptized himself with a bright future, pulling out some fine saves all throughout the match including a double save late into the game. So was Zequinha and Robin Singh who combined for the game’s only goal.
A counter attack led by Robbie Keane, saw the former Tottenham Hotspur pass the ball to Zequinha in the left flank, whose curled shot from the outside of his boot was put into the net by Robin Singh, earning ATK what was their only second goal in the competition.
Desperate to maintain their unscathed home record the ‘Islanders’ went all out in the final few minutes, flurrying attacks into the ATK box but the away team held on, eventually clinching what was their first win in competition after a wait of four matches.