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Mohammedan Sporting run riot against Chennaiyin FC Reserves

Mohammedan Sporting Club players celebrating one of their goals. (Photo courtesy: Mohammedan Sporting Club)
Mohammedan Sporting Club players celebrating one of their goals. Photo courtesy: Mohammedan Sporting Club

Mohammedan Sporting Club ran riot with four unanswered goals against Chennaiyin FC Reserves in their Group B fixture of the 2019/20 Hero 2nd Division League on Thursday.

Goals from Sanjib Ghosh (45′), John Chidi (59′), Balwinder Singh (67′) and a fairy tale strike from substitute Jaskaranpreet Singh (86′) helped Black Panthers to log yet another convincing win at Kalyani Stadium.

Going into the match Mohammedan Sporting technical director Dipendu Biswas made two changes to the side by handing starts to Hira Mondal and Jiten Mumru at the expense of Sujit Sadhu and Firoj Ali.

Mohammedan SC looked a lot more comfortable in the first-half, adopting a passing game that often had the visitors giving chase rather than being able to control the game themselves.

There were a slew of chances for the Black Panthers but they were thwarted each time either by the penalty area management from Joel Aju, or their own difficulties finding the target.

Chennaiyin, on the other hand, started the match with the deep defensive block, so deep at times that the full 11 members of the squad were sitting deep in their own half.

It’s an approach which Dipendu Biswas’ charges found incredibly frustrating as they dominated possession but struggled to find any gaps to exploit.

The break eventually came for the Black Panthers in the very last minute of the first-half when Sanjib latched onto a long ball over the back-line and fired it past an approaching Joel to give his side the lead going into the breather.

Chennaiyin came out of the sheds much stronger than they’d appeared in the first-half, playing some decent football and stringing together some good passages of play, however they were repeatedly denied by their hosts, and forced to deal with a wave of rapid counter attacks.

The constant attacking by the Black Panthers eventually wore down the Chennaiyin defence to the point where a heavy touch allowed Chidi to steal possession and slot the ball past Joel to give the home side a 2-0 lead in the 59th minute.

A double change for Chennaiyin midway through the second-half injected some fresh legs into the mix, however even that wasn’t enough to stem the attacks from Mohammedan SC who continued to out-pace their rivals across the park before Balwinder headed home from a Tirthankar Sarkar corner to make it 3-0 in the 67th minute.

Thereafter, Mohammedan SC continued to dominate proceedings creating multiple chances for Vanlalbiaa Chhangte and Tirthankar up front.

Vanlalbiaa should have made it 4-0 in the 82nd minute when a perfect cross was supplied to him across the face of goal by Hira, but the Mizo winger failed to tap it in from close range.

Four minutes later Jaskaranpreet put the final nail in the coffin with a powerful shot from outside the box into the top right corner.

An elated Dipendu Biswas gave all credit to his players for a very important win.

“It’s a nice win for us. Credit to the boys they have done well as they followed what we told them to do,” the former India international said.

The Black Panthers will face Hyderabad FC Reserves next at Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad on February 26.

(Mohammedan Sporting Club)