Mohun Bagan regains Calcutta league title

Nov 15: Mohun Bagan regained the premier division crown of the Calcutta Football League with a round to spare as they comfortably defeated Peerless SC 2-0 here on Wednesday.

Mohun Bagan have so far collected 33 points which takes them ahead of arch-rivals and defending champions East Bengal, who are on 25 points from 12 matches. This is the 27th domestic title for the green and mahroon brigade.

P.C. Lalawmpuia opened the scoring in the 27th minute for Mohun Bagan from a spectacular volley. The assurance goal came in the 66th minute through star striker Baichung Bhutia, who scored to ensure full points sealing the title in their favour.

Lalawmpuia surged the team ahead after squandering couple of early chances. He latched on to a Habibur Rahman Mondal cross from the right and slotted it home with a side volley from the edge of the penalty area.

Bhaichung Bhutia, who got four stitches in his head after colliding with Satish Kumar Bharati in the first-half, performed stupendously after returning on the field to lead his team to the victory.

The Bagan captain trapped the ball following a Peter Siddiqui free kick. The alert forward dodged past one defender inside the box and took another in his stride, before guiding the ball into the far corner.

Bhaichung got off the blocks very fast and made a surging run from the left in the second minute of the match, after grabbing a through ball and unleashed a powerful left-footer, but to his dismay Peerless custodian Subrabuddin Chowdhury made a fine save to deny him a goal.

Four minutes later, Lalawmpuia shot it wide after receiving a Habibur cross from the right. He had to beat only the Peerless goalkeeper but he messed it up in the end.

This is the second successive CFL title for Coach Roberto Carlos Pereira. The Brazilian coached East Bengal to the title last season.

TEAMS

Mohun Bagan: Shilton Paul, Habibur Rahman Mondal (Subhasish Roy Chowdhury 57’), Sanjeev Maria, Peter Siddiqui, Rauf Khan, Douglas Da Silva, James Singh (Tapan Maity 77’), Dharamjit Singh, Jose Ramirez Barreto, Bhaichung Bhutia, P.C. Lalawmpuia (S. Venkatesh)

Peerless SC: Subrabuddin Chowdhury, Zoheb Hassan (Kamal Bhunia 86’), Satish Kumar Bharti, Saheb Ali, Tarak Roy, Gouranga Biswas, Soumen Sarkar, Ugmu James Agbo, Kartick Kisku (Arup Singha 75’), Babin Biswas, Subair Muritala Ali (Debjit Bhowmick 73’)

Referee: Minangshu Bhattacharya