Mohun Bagan raid the Ever-Ready citadel at Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday. Picture by Gautam Bose

Calcutta: When Mohun Bagan took field against Alok Mukherjee-coached Ever-Ready Association at Salt Lake stadium in their 13 th match in the CFL Premier Division on Wednesday, they had nothing to prove. And ultimately they scraped past Mukherjee’s side by a Mehtab Hussain strike in the 49 th minute.

Though it was an inconsequential tie for the champions, Dutta’s men had to win it to keep the winning habit intact. But posting a win was not easy at all as the forwards failed in the penetrating zone against Ever-Ready in their penultimate game.

After clinching the title beating Tollygunge Agragami at the same venue on Monday, this match was a kind of academic interest for the green-and-maroons.

It was a poor display by Mehtab and Co. Passes missed and fouls committed, was enough to draw the pity picture of a team, which seemed so hungry for victory last week. With the Togolese, Gley Yao Rodrigue ruled out for a fortnight by an injury, the attack was pretty blunt and it clearly pointed out a lack of striking ability in the green-and-maroon brigade.

In the first half, not many chances were created by Dutta’s men. The only chance was created by Ever-Ready. Goalie Subroto Pal fisted out a strong Dhiman Sinha shot a minute to the breather. Ever-Ready were awarded the free-kick when and an Eugene Grey right-footer struck the defensive wall and bounced back to Sinha, which resulted in that brilliant Pal show to survive the anxious moment.

After the lemon break, it was no different for the both sides, but it seemed that the green-and-maroons were complacent. Dipendu Biswas who came on as a replacement for the Sushil Kumar in the 46th minute, went pass the Ever-Ready defence but failed to get pass goalkeeper Nasibul Haque.

Three minutes later, an unmarked Mehtab Hussain found an addressed cross from Tomba Singh and scored the winner. It was only the high point of the game for Mohun Bagan. Ever-Ready got another chance which was squandered by Habib Ali Mondal.

Dutta said that that his strategy was to play defensive, which is also going to be the same in the Federation Cup. He also added there is a lack of a good striker, and that he is looking forward to Ernest Jeremiah joining the ranks. Jeremiah is playing in Bangladesh currently.

TEAMS

Mohun Bagan: Subroto Pal, Sanjay Parte, Eduardo Coelho, Feroze, Noel Wilson, Tomba Singh, Mehrajuddin Wadao, Mehtab Hussain, Dharamjit Singh, Sushil Kumar (Dipendu Biswas 46, Harvinder Singh 72), Jerry Zirsangha.

Ever-Ready: Sheikh Nasibul Haq, Akshay Das, Surajit Chakraborty, Amulya Mondal, Muzaffar Rehman, Mohammed M. Siddiqui (Krispen Chettry 29), Lal Kamal Bhowmick, Dhiman Sinha, Snehasish Chakraborty, Sheikh Habib Ali, Eugene Gray.

Referee: Biswajit Kar.

Md. Sp. beat Tolly

Mohammedan Sporting defeated Tollygunge Agragami 3-2 at the Kalyani Stadium on Wednesday.

K.P. Zubair, Palash Karmakar and Patrick D’Souza scored for the winners. Surojit Chakraborty and Seikh Ajim reduced the margin for Tollygunge Agragami.