Lalkamal Bhowmick after netting Mohun Bagan’s winner at the Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: Mohun Bagan’s passage to the IFA Shield final was mired by an ugly post-match free-for-all between two players at the Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday.

The green-and-maroons’ Brazilian defender Eduardo Coelho and Sporting Clube de Goa’s Nigerian striker Dudu Omagbemi traded blows soon after referee S. Suresh blew the final whistle.

Both foreigners eventually received marching orders from the Tamil Nadu official, but the impact of their on-field altercation completely overshadowed Lalkamal Bhowmick’s matchwinner in the 65th minute.

The Mohun Bagan fans smashed Sporting’s team bus, forcing the Goan visitors to stay indoors long after the match got over.

Several other vehicles parked outside the stadium’s main entrance were also subjected to public fury. As glass shards lay strewn all over and players escorted out with a large posse of police, the stains on the game’s image in the city will perhaps need a thousand dry cleaners to get removed.

No doubt Mohun Bagan returned the deserving winners. Lalkamal took full advantage of a melee among the Sporting defenders, finding the target from close following a Dharamjit Singh floater from the left.

His goal was, in effect, a justified end to a greater Mohun Bagan cause, which was almost scuppered by some silly mistakes from veterans like Bhaichung Bhutia and Jose Ramirez Barreto.

A minute from the break, Bhaichung chested down a perfectly weighted Dharamjit cross inside the box, flawlessly positioned himself for shooting, but was surprisingly off the target.

In the 74th minute, it was Barreto’s turn to join the bandwagon of missed chances.

In a quickfire three-man move, starting from the opponents’ half-line, Lalkamal fed Mehtab Hussain down the left, who quickly released it for his captain with alacrity, leaving the Sporting backline struggling to negotiate with the challenge.

But in an un-Barreto like act, the Brazilian dithered, wasted precious time in controlling the ball and thus allowed Matthew Gonsalves to intercept him in the nick of time.

Mohun Bagan’s build-up was mostly occasioned down the right wing till Dharmajit was introduced as Manas Das’ replacement on the half-hour mark.

The midfielder, coupled with Mehtab at the other end, kept the wings active. It’s just another matter that the wing-borne moves couldn’t find any meaningful expression due to the below-par performances of Bhaichung and Barreto.

Sporting were a picture of passing football. They managed to take the Mohun Bagan defence in stride by playing one-touch passes across the face of the box. They, however, failed to translate these efforts into goals.

TEAMS

Mohun Bagan: Sangram Mukherjee; Dulal Biswas (Subhas Chakraborty 56), Deepak Mondal, Eduardo Coelho, Manas Das (Dharmajit Singh, 30); Goutam Debnath, Lalkamal Bhowmick, Fabio Cartez Vidal, Mehtab Hussain (P. Lalawmpuia 88), Jose Ramirez Barreto, Bhaichung Bhutia.

Sporting Clube de Goa: Felix D’Souza; Rajesh Meetei, Felip Gomes, Matthew Gonsalves, Bello Rassaq; Wilton Gomes (Jose Carvalho 81), Harmanjot Khabra (Godwin Franco 85), Joe Rodrigues (Joseph Pereira, 85), Nicolau Borges; Ernest Jeremiah, Dudu Omagbemi.

Referee: S. Suresh (Tamil Nadu).