Calcutta: Tolgay Ozebe couldn’t have asked for a better way to regain his form.

Agreed that McDowell Mohun Bagan were playing against an inexperienced unit in Pailan Arrows, but the fact that Tolgay played through pain and scored a brace cannot be overlooked at all.

His performance helped Bagan surge to ascendancy and importantly, stay ahead despite all the pressure created by the Arrows.

Arrows paid the price for their lack of maturity, yet again, as Bagan, sans Okolie Odafe, defeated them 3-2 in Sunday’s I-League tie, at the Kalyani Stadium.

After Aiborlang Khongjee nodded one home to give Bagan a lead early in the fifth minute, he centred one for Tolgay, who with a turn, unleashed a superb left-footer — evading his marker Shouvik Ghosh — to make it 2-0 for Bagan 13 minutes later.

Soon after, the Australian got the ball, off a melee, scored with a right-footer to bring up his second.

The match looked as good as over before the scorching heat started to take its toll on Bagan players. Not to say that Arrows players weren’t affected, but the fact that all of them are in their early 20s gave the side an advantage over their opposition as the game progressed.

On Bagan’s request, there was even a two-minute drinks interval midway into the second session — a first in this season’s I-League.

Towards the end of first half, M. Shaiju Mon pulled one back for the Arrows, converting off a through ball from D. Ganesh.

It never appeared as if this strike would affect Bagan’s morale as they still enjoyed a two-goal cushion.

But after the break, Bagan simply looked drained out, allowing the Arrows with an attempt to gain a foothold over them.

Seeing his midfielders struggling to cope up with the heat, Bagan coach Karim Bencharifa replaced Aiborlang with Manish Maithani at the start of the second half, pushing Syed Rahim Nabi down to the right-back’s position.

And four minutes later, Seiminlen Doungel reduced the margin, heading home a cross from Holicharan Narzary.

All Bagan stopperback Mehrajuddin Wadoo could do was stare at the ball, while Doungel did the needful.

Later on, there were as many as seven to eight Bagan players hovering around their defence, with Tolgay being the sole man forward.