A jubilant Mahindra United with the IFA Shield on Friday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: The irony couldn’t have been missed on the 25,000-odd Mohun Bagan fans who had assembled on a cold Friday evening at the Salt Lake Stadium. Manjit Singh, the striker the green-and-maroons abandoned at the end of last season leaving him club-less for many months, produced a classy left-footed finish 12 minutes into the final to win the IFA Shield for Mahindra United.

Manjit, a constant threat to the Mohun Bagan defence, deserved the Man-of-the-Match award just for the way he crafted the winner. He played a quick 1-2 with the intelligent Yusif Yakubu, before sprinting down the middle to let his teammate move into striking zone. Manjit then released a weighted cross for Yakubu, who screened D. Ravanan and came up with an equally precise square pass. An advancing Manjit let go a guided missile with the outstep of his left foot.

An unmarked James Singh could have scored before Manjit, if only he had taken his time and controlled the header with the Mohun Bagan defence at sixes and defence. But for Deepak Mondal’s solidity, Mahindra could have sealed the home team’s fate with one, if not two more goals before the break.

Having done hardly anything of significance in the first half, Mohun Bagan shrugged off the rust and injected a healthy dose of urgency in their game after change of ends. The introduction of Dharamjit Singh after 18 minutes — he should have been there from the word go — and Lalawmpuia (just after half-time), along with Dulal Biswas’ mobility down the right channel made the difference.

Jose Ramirez Barreto and Bhaichung Bhutia — who have been quite a letdown in their first tournament as a pair this season — tried their best to get into the act as well, and the Mohun Bagan attacks flowed thick and fast.

It was crunch time for Mahindra. With not many options on the bench, thanks to injury and card problems, the NFL and Federation Cup champions switched to a defensive mode. Manjit was asked to play from behind and Mohammed Rafi instructed to curb his attacking instincts.

Everyone in the Mahindra ranks rose to the occasion. What caught the eye was their level of fitness and willingness to fall back in batches. Despite being at the receiving end for most of the second session, Mahindra never looked ugly or desperate in their approach.

Mahindra did enjoy their fair share of luck. A Barreto grounder struck the base of the near post, Lalkamal Bhowmick’s flick had to be headed out from the goalline by N. Pradeep, then an ambitious Lalawmpuia left-footer kissed the far post on way out.

It was not Mohun Bagan’s day, for sure. But interim coach Robson and the club management will have to do some serious soul-searching to turn things around. There are just six days to go for their Federation Cup-opener against Viva Kerala.

TEAMS

Mahindra United: Sandip Nandy, Surkumar Singh, Peter Siddiqui, N. Manju, N. Pradeep, Samson Fernandes, Bhola Prasad (Steven Dias, 57), James Singh, Manjit Singh, Mohammed Rafi (Rauf Khan, 65), Yusif Yakubu.

Mohun Bagan: Sangram Mukherjee (Shilton Pal, 54), Deepak Mondal, Dulal Biswas, Gautam Debnath, D. Ravanan (Lalawmpuia, 46), Fabio Cortez Vidal, Lalkamal Bhowmick, Mehtab Hussain, Subhas Chakraborty (Dharamjit Singh, 18), Jose Ramirez Barreto, Bhaichung Bhutia.

Referee: S. Suresh.

MoM: Manjit Singh.