By IANS,
Kolkata : A 10-man Mohun Bagan displayed fine cohesion to account for JCT Mills, Phagwara, 2-0 in an I-League match here Sunday.
Both the goals came in the first half, with medio Ashfar Ahmed and striker Jose Barreto finding the target at the floodlit Salt Lake stadium.
Egged on by a 25,000-strong crowd, the hosts played well from the start and went ahead in the 14th minute when a James Singh cross from the right saw Ahmed, later adjudged man of the match, outpace Amandeep Singh and head into the net.
Keeping up the tempo, Bagan doubled the marjin at the stroke of the half hour from a penalty. A dangerous looking Barreto was pushed inside the box by Julius Akpele and the Brazilian made no mistake in converting the easiest of setpieces.
Bagan, however, fell a man short in the 43rd minute as Peter Odafe had to leave the field after receiving his second booking of the match for bringing down Jagpreet Singh. Earlier, he was shown the yellow card for an unfair tackle on Amandeep from behind.
However, the manpower shortage made no dent in Bagan’s domination as all three departments – backline, midfield and forwardline – functioned like a well-oiled machine for the rest of the match.
The strikers Barreto and kipper Bhaichung Bhutia both took a good amount of workload as they repeatedly came down to assist the medios, who also put up a good show.
JCT also got some chances, while the woodwork stood between them and the goal on one occasion.
It was in the 18th minute of the match that Brazilian Eduardo’s effort rebounded off the post and the Bagan camp breathed a sigh of relief.
Eduardo was again in the spotlight a minute before the half time break as he unleashed a rasping 40-yard free kick that was well saved by Bagan custodian Sangram Mukherjee.
Crossing over, a minute before the hour mark Balwant Singh had Mukherjee at his mercy, but his shot was saved by the goalkeeper. The rebound came to Sakhtar Singh who blew over.
After eight rounds, Bagan are on 12 points to move up to the fifth slot, while JCT remained on nine points to slip to the eighth place.