Gauranga Dutta of United SC at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: United SC returned to winning ways beating city rivals Mohammedan Sporting 1-0 in their seventh round ONGC I-League match at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday evening.

Man of the Match Gauranga Dutta scored the only goal of the match in the 61st minute with a brilliant left-footer, thus avenging their two losses in the Premier Division meetings.

It was actually a Subhasish Roy Chowdhury move from the left that led to the goal. Latching on to a harmless ball in the mid-field, Subhasish surged past a couple of defenders before chipping it for Subair Murithala Ali, who chested it down for the unmarked Gauranga Dutta in the top-box.

The veteran Gauranga placed it past the advancing Mohammedan Sporting custodian Tharangachan Tungshan into the far corner to score.

Victory placed Subrata Bhattacharjee’s side sixth on the I-League table above Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting, and one place beneath East Bengal. They now have eight points from seven outings.

Unlike their earlier performances, Shabbir Ali’s men on Saturday appeared to have lost the plot in the initial minutes.

A listless defence and a lacklustre mid-field gave United SC the upper hand.

United SC, however, squandered an opportunity to take an early lead when Murithala missed a sitter when he failed to nick in a Subhasish cross.

The substitutions made by Shabbir Ali after the change of ends — Vimal Pariyar for Mir Farooq Hyder, Lalhariatzuala Tezoka for Sovan Chakraborty and A. Jyothi Kumar for Goutam Thakur — made little difference.

Mohammedan Sporting pushed forward looking for a way back into the match but Shabbir Ali’s most trusted duo — Mike Okoro and Theodore Sunday — lacked their usual magical finish.

In the 85th minute a collective effort ended up going nowhere when a brilliant Adewusi Adebao effort hit the cross piece.

United SC coach Subrata Bhattacharjee, after the match, said: “I am happy with the performance of my boys. These three points are very important… But we still have a long way to go. Today we stuck to what we planned and got the result.”

TEAMS

United SC: Gopal Das, Denson Devadas, Bidemi Daniel Ayeni, Louis Nigi Ebami, Dulal Biswas, Subhasish Roy Chowdhury (Kinshuk Debnath 44), Dhanarajan R., Snehasish Chakraborty, Hardeep Singh, Gauranga Dutta (Sankar Oraon 90), Subair Murithala Ali.

Mohammedan Sporting: Tharangachan Tungshan, Mir Farooq Hyder (Vimal Pariyar 84), Adewusi Adebao Tokunbo, Bijoy Das, Gurpreet Singh, Sovan Chakraborty (Lalhariatzuala Tezoka 64), Goutam Thakur (A. Jyothi Kumar 70), Anit Ghosh, Wasim Feroz, Mike Okoro, Theodore Sunday.

Referee: Benjamin Silva

MoM: Gauranga Dutta