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Putting up a spirited show, Mohun Bagan came from behind to
registered a morale-boosting win over HAL Bangalore by 4-2 in the ninth round match of the I League played here on Wednesday.
For the Aircraftsmen, same saga repeated, they could not hold on to a comfortable 2-0 margin, and paid the price for instilling over-cautious approach in the second-half.
Within 25 minutes to the game, hosts took the lead through Malemngamba Meetai neat header from RC Prakash cross. Six minutes later, another one, this time from striker Hamza! Bagan keeper, Sangram Mukherjee came out of charge and Hamza took no time to place the ball into the goal mouth.
Post lemon-break, everyone thought HAL is all set to pocket full-points for the first time in this season. However, their skipper Femi Adeola came out of the pitch injured, over-defensive HAL paid the price and started conceding goals.
Star striker Odafa Okolie, latched on a corner from Snehasish to score the first goal for Mohun Bagan in the 60th minute.
HAL got a quick chance to increase their lead when RC Prakash did enough to pass the ball to Vinoth Kumar. With Bagan keeper and defender out of position, all young Vinoth needed was to touch the ball, however, he failed, and missed an open net.
The corner combination of Snehasish and Odafa again worked for Bagan in the 70th minute, when Odafa scored his brace.
Mohun Bagan took lead in the 88th minute with a move from left flank orchestrated by Syed Rahim Nabi. Odafa’s shot from Snehasish cross, went to Jewel. The later, using his right foot, gets the ball past the goal.
Substitute Manish Maithani joined the party in added time, his solo left footed effort after dribbling past few HAL players from outside the box, yielded the best goal of the match.
Mohun Bagan Technical Director, Subrata Bhattachayra looked relaxed, “Forget the game we played, what is important that we’ve got full points. We did not play a good in first-half, however, during the break I told my boys to play from the wings, and that worked for us today.”
The Aircraftsmen yet again failed to hold a lead. With just a point from 9 matches, HAL is simply losing the plot!, while Mohun Bagan reached third spot with 19 points from 9 matches.
