Mohun Bagan attacker Sunil Chhetri’s (jersey No. 11) weak penalty shot is saved by Railway FC goalkeeper Rabindranath Poddar in their Super Division match at Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: It was a chance centre that substitute Abhay Kumar took in the 75th minute that finally saved the day for Mohun Bagan versus Railway FC in their CFL Super Division clash at the Salt Lake Stadium Wednesday.

The 1-0 verdict, though, did not tell the true picture of Mohun Bagan dominance, though the sprightly railway team did their best to keep up the fight till the end. In between, Mohun Bagan’s Sunil Chhetri even missed a penalty.

The overall situation wasn’t inspiring, empty stands and a persistent drizzle accompanying somewhat lackadaisical play. Chhetri, who has developed into a rather mature player this season, was the man to watch, even with his more illustrious colleague Ashim Biswas alongside.

In the tenth minute, off an attack, a sudden Chhetri volley was saved for a corner by RFC goalkeeper Rabindranath Poddar. That compliment was returned in two minutes by RFC’s Sandip Santra, whose 25-yard powerful volley was tipped over by Bagan goalkeeper Prasanta Dora.

Chhetri tried his ‘hand’ at a back-volley in the 15th minute. it was a fine try, and he did reach the target, but Poddar was at hand to smother it.

Then, in the 29th minute, Ashim moved into the box. He had control over the ball, when RFC’s Deepayan Majumdar went into a tackle. It did not seem that it was a foul tackle, and Ashim even sent the ball goalwards from where he was on the turf, but referee Subrata Das ran in and booked Majumdar, ordering the penalty.

All the good work of Chhetri came to nought when he took a casual, weak grounder that Poddar had no problem in collecting.

That put Bagan under more pressure, especially with news coming in of a possible goalless verdict for East Bengal at the Howrah Stadium.

The goal came off one rather unorganised attack in the 30th minute of the second session of play. Up the left wing, Abhay Kumar sent a high centre to the goalmouth, expecting a header. Tomba Singh jumped for a try, he missed.

The defenders missed too, and Poddar, who had a good game otherwise, was unsighted. The ball hit the far post and rebounded in. The rest of the match had little to write home about.

Mohun Bagan have 10 points from four matches, while RFC have five points from five outings so far.

TEAMS

Mohun Bagan: Prasanta Dora, Mehraj ud-din Wadao (Monitombi Singh, 41), Eduardo Coelho, Palash Karmakar, Dulal Biswas, Basudeb Mondal (Biman Mondal, 64), Tomba Singh, Jerry Zirsanga (Abhay Kumar, 22), Dharamjit Singh, Ashim Biswas, Sunil Chhetri.

Railway FC: Rabindranath Poddar, Kunal Das, Shankar Das, Sundar Mandi, Deepayan Majumdar, Debabrata Roy, Subhranil Dutta, Sariful Islam (Dulal Patra, 78), Sukhlal Bhumij (Suraj Mondal, 63), Gaurav Dutta, Sandip Santra (Bablu Banik, 79).

Referee: Subrata Das.