Bhaichung Bhutia is the toast of teammates after converting a free-kick to give Mohun Bagan the winner against CPT on Sunday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: Forty-one days ago, Mohun Bagan started their CFL Premier Division defence on a disastrous note, going down to Calcutta Port Trust (CPT) 0-1. On Sunday, Biswajit Bhattacharya’s side exacted sweet revenge with a 2-1 win, thanks to one conversion of two penalties — Dipendu Biswas missed the first one — and Bhaichung Bhutia’s breathtaking piledriver.

However, for the 5000-odd Mohun Bagan fans present at the ground, the rest of the story hardly merited any celebrations. It was, in fact, the rivals who called the shots for most of the match and they had reasons to be unhappy with the referee Biswajit Kar’s way of officiating.

Here is an interesting anecdote to the whistle-happy Kar’s supervision: Between Lalkamal Bhowmick’s equaliser for Mohun Bagan in the 74th minute — through a penalty-kick — and Bhaichung’s winner from a free-kick in the 83rd minute, he blew whistle eight times for fouls alone (excluding one corner and three throw-ins during that time), five of which could have easily fallen in the advantage-play category.

After eight matches, Mohun Bagan are now on 14 points while Port Trust stay on 10 points from 9 outings.

Sujit Dey, who sank Mohun Bagan in their first meeting with a late strike, proved once again to be the home team’s nemesis as he put Port Trust ahead in the 26th minute.

Felix Chimaokwu, who gave Mohun Bagan backline some anxious moments with his sharp turns and speed, tested Sangram Mukherjee with a high volley. The Mohun Bagan goalkeeper parried the ball partially, only to see Sujit snapping it up unchallenged from the far post.

The early setback forced Bhattacharya to send an SoS to India captain Bhaichung Bhutia, who had requested the coach for a rest following his national duty in Jeddah on Wednesday despite being on the bench.

Mohun Bagan could have taken the lead six minutes before Sujit’s goal, when the referee judged Port Trust defender Soumen Sarkar guilty of pushing Dipendu inside the box, though it appeared to be a routine push with shoulders in an aerial challenge.

Port Trust, however, received poetic justice when their custodian Goutam Das judged Dipendu’s shot from the 12-yard spot rightly.

An hour later, he had to face another rival from the same spot, though Lalkamal didn’t miss the opportunity this time around. Then came the moment of brilliance from Bhaichung — his powerful free-kick from 25 yards left no chances for the goalkeeper.

That was the solitary flash of thrill and excitement in a match otherwise characterised by listless football and bad refereeing.

TEAMS

Mohun Bagan: Sangram Mukherjee; D. Ravanan, Eduardo Coelho, Deepak Mondal; Dharamjit Singh, Ndem Guy Herve, Chinmoy Sarkar, Satyajit Bose (Manas Das 27), Lalkamal Bhowmick; Dipendu Biswas, Surajit Bose (Bhaichung Bhutia 46).

Calcutta Port Trust: Goutam Das; Akshay Das, Soumen Sarkar, Rabindra Nath Karmakar, Subhas Banerjee; Tapan Maity (Mithun Naha 51), Avinash Thapa, Pradip Indu, Stanley Cyprian, Felix Chimaokwu; Sujit Dey.

Referee: Biswajit Kar.

Man-of-the-Match: Bhaichung Bhutia.