Dipendu Biswas exults after scoring on Thursday. Picture by Gautam Bose

Calcutta: Mohun Bagan continued their winning momentum going in the CFL Premier Division, beating Ever-Ready 1-0 at the Salt Lake Stadium on Thursday.

Substitute Dipendu Biswas struck the matchwinner in the 66th minute, helping his team log the full quota of 15 points off five matches. Ever-Ready are on eight after six outings.

The win, however, failed to hide an otherwise listless and purposeless display from Mohun Bagan. Only a little understanding from coach Amal Dutta ensured things fell in place even if the dogged Ever-Ready were in no mood to let things happen in the former’s favour.

New Togolese recruit Gley Yao Rodrigue must be the cynosure of all Mohun Bagan eyes ever since he made the dream debut against East Bengal last Thursday, scoring the eventual winner. He also struck a double against Tollygunge Agragami in the following match.

But on Thursday, he had something unusual to fight with ? a ground rendered slushy due to rains, forcing the match to kick off 20 minutes behind the scheduled 3.30 pm. Too often, Rodrigue found it difficult to control the ball, let alone directing it to something meaningful.

He shone sometimes though, particularly in the 37th minute when the Togolese managed to dribble past two defenders on the right and set the ball for Dharamjit Singh to do the rest, but the Punjab midfielder messed it completely.

Dutta anticipated the problem as early as the 31st minute when he brought in Dipendu in place of Manjit Singh.

The former Mahindra United striker, who has perfectly been associated with these situations, knew how to set the ball rolling. The much-needed goal didn’t come immediately, but Dipendu’s experience with the soggy park generated an ambience of hope around the team.

He eventually did the needful in the 66th minute when he managed to tap the ball home from a Tomba Singh cross from the left. It was not a great goal, but just changing the direction of the ball out of a melee made it impossible for Ever-Ready goalie Shibram Dey to block it. Just before that, Dipendu tried a bicycle kick which missed the target by whisker.

Eugene Gray, Zamir Ali, and Lal Kamal Bhowmick tried their best to put the Mohun Bagan defenders in a spot of bother several times. Bhowmick even tested Mohun Bagan custodian Subrata Pal with a couple of long rangers.

Incidentally, Rodrigue and Gray were involved in a brawl but a timely interception from the referee Debasish Mishra was enough to nip it in the bud. Gray was booked.

TEAMS

Mohun Bagan: Subrata Pal, Eduardo Coelho, Subhasish Roy Chowdhury, Satish Bharti, Sanjay Parte, Tomba Singh, Rajiv Ahmed, Mehtab Hussain, Dharamjit Singh, Manjit Singh (Dipendu Biswas 31, Basudeb Mondal 66, Hardeep Gill 75), Gley Yao Rodrigue.

Ever-Ready: Shibram Dey, Surajit Chakraborty, Amulya Mondal, Akshay Das, Wriddhiman Sarkar, Dhiman Sinha (Niladri Sekhar Chakraborty 89), Lal Kamal Bhowmick, Snehasish Chakraborty, Habib Ali Mondal (Criespen Chhetry 85), Zamir Ali (Ratan Das 67), Eugene Gray.

Referee: Debashish Mishra.