Shanmugam Venkatesh scores Mohun Bagan’s second goal against Eastern Railway on Sunday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: Douglas da Silva made a perfect comeback after a five-month injury lay-off to help Mohun Bagan script a 3-0 win over Eastern Railway in the Sahara CFL Premier Division on Saturday.

The Brazilian headed home Dharamjit Singh flag-kick to put the hosts ahead in the 36th minute to add some spark to a dull start.

Man-of-the-Match Douglas last played for Mohun Bagan in the Super Cup match against Dempo SC on May 27. Mohun Bagan had won that match 4-0, thanks to a Bhaichung Bhutia hattrick. His last NFL match was also against Dempo on May 18.

In fact, Eastern Railway should have drawn the first blood. It was 19 minutes into the first half when they squandered a golden chance in a goalmouth melee.

It did not take Mohun Bagan too long to double the lead. Eight minutes later Shanmugam Venkatesh made it 2-0 for the giants. Taking advantage of Eastern Railway goalkeeper Raju Ganguly’s misjudgement, Venkatesh nudged the ball home.

Having done reasonably well for first half-hour, the first goal in the 36th minute put Ganguly down. Ganguly was beaten by the pace as he went ahead to grab the ball but only to be deceived by a rampaging Venkatesh who did not make any mistake.

Three minutes before the final whistle, substitute Ayan Chowdhury showed promise by scoring the third and completing the tally. Utilising a Tapan Maity pass, Ayan, who was brought in 15 minutes earlier, banged in the third goal as Mohun Bagan regained the top spot in the league standings.

Having been upstaged by East Bengal (25 points from 11 matches) on Saturday, Mohun Bagan regained the lead with 27 points.

On a day that belonged to Douglas, P.C. Lalawmpuia was unlucky. The diminutive striker got a fine opportunity in the 24th minute. But his deflection was brilliantly saved by the opponents’ goalkeeper Ganguly.

Acknowledging Douglas performance, coach Carlos Roberto Pereira said: “I’m extremely happy with Douglas’ comeback performance… Moreover, he could play the entire match — a good sign ahead of our East Bengal tie. However, we’ll take two days’ rest now before regrouping on Tuesday.”

In the same vein, the coach said Lalawmpuia was mediocre. “But you can’t expect everybody to fire on one day. Apart from Douglas, there were few other bright spots — Ayan Chowdhury and Tapan Maity, both of whom showed good promise.”

Asked what was his prediction for their crucial match against East Bengal, in a jocular vein Pereira replied: “It’s like a pregnant woman… You don’t know what will be the outcome.

“We’re closely following their (East Bengal’s) performance… If they have Edmilson, we’ve Barreto and Douglas.”

Jose Ramirez Barreto, it maybe noted, missed out Sunday’s match due to a double booking.

Douglas, on the other hand, said he was not fully happy about his performance. “I’m never fully satisfied… About today’s show, I’ll give myself 50 per cent marks… But you should have trust on me and the team and then only we’ll pay you back,” he said.

All eyes, now, are on the Mohun Bagan-East Bengal derby. That’s on November 6.

TEAMS

Mohun Bagan: Shilton Paul, Bijoy Basfore (Subhasish Roy Chowdhury 83), Peter Odafe, Sanjeev Maria, Rahul Kumar, Douglas da Silva, James Singh, Dharamjit Singh, Shanmugam Venkatesh (Tapan Maity 84), P.C. Lalawmpuia, Sewram Gobin (Ayan Chowdhury 72).

Eastern Railway SC: Raju Ganguly, Babun Kar, Santanu Bit, Dipankar Ghosh, Bijoy Das, Joydeep Bose, Niladri Chakraborty (Chandan Turi 46), Bapan Bera (Rajib Ekka 74), Antoney Soren, Bapi Halder, Farid Ali Mollah (Fulchand Hembram 46).

Referee: Biplab Poddar.