Coffi Agbessi, who scored the second goal against Fransa, at the Salt Lake Stadium on Thursday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Mohun Bagan supporters were smiling at long last. Eight rounds into the ONGC Cup for the 10th National Football League (NFL), the green-and-maroons tasted their maiden win courtesy a 2-0 shutout of Fransa Pax 2-0 at the Salt Lake Stadium on Thursday evening.

It was an excellent debut for Biswajit Bhattacharya, who replaced Jahar Das at the helm recently. For a team which had struggled to put the ball into the rival net, it was a welcome sight to see Sushil Singh and Coffi Agbessi score in the first half hour. It could easily have been a tennis-like score had the hosts not squandered a string of sitters.

Mohun Bagan now have eight points from as many matches, while Fransa remain on three from seven games.

Mohun Bagan were on the attacking mode right from the word go and had two scoring opportunities in the very first minute. Strikers Agbessi and Sushil were the culprits.

Mohun Bagan went one up in the 24th minute when Sushil, receiving a through pass from Noel Wilson, dodged two defenders and fired a right-footer into the net.

Six minutes later, Mohun Bagan consolidated their position through Agbessi. A good combined featuring Subhasish Roy Chowdhury, Agbessi, Awudu Ibrahim and Sushil saw the second-named tap the ball into the net.

Fransa’s first and only chance came in the 35th minute, when their Brazilian striker Ivan D’Silva shot over the bar. For the rest of the game, the Fransa players looked in no mood to produce their best.

Three minutes later, Sushil messed up another easy chance. With only the goalie to beat, the striker lost his footing and fell down. It was a wonderful exhibition of creating and missing chances. Some of those, in the second half, had to be seen to be believed.

Fransa, after all the days of drama over their further participation in the NFL, looked a disjointed lot. Said coach Norbert Gonsalves: “I am going to speak to the chairman about the boys’ performance. We are short on confidence, but we can’t lose hope.”

TEAMS

Mohun Bagan: Subrata Pal, Manas Das, Mehrajuddin Wadao, Suleiman Firoz, Subhashish Roy Chowdhury, Dharamjit Singh (Jerry Zirsanga 65), Noel Wilson, Chinmoy Sarkar (Basudeb Mondal 75), Sushil Singh (Dipendu Biswas 65), Coffi Agbessi, Auwdu Ibrahim.

Fransa: Virender Singh, Creson Antao, Jitesh Kuwzikkal, Bello Rasaq, Ryan D’Souza (Akshay Das 33), Peter Rodrigues (Savio Mascarenhas 80), Roque Barretto, Peter Carvalho, Saikhom Singh, Mohammed Nisam (Wesley Coutinho 55), Ivan D’ Silva.

Referee: M.K. Roy (Assam).