KOLKATA: Tollygunge Agragami overcame George Telegraph 2-1 to register their first win in the ongoing Calcutta Premier Division – A 2016/17, here on Tuesday.
After a barren first-half, striker Alfred Jaryan (53rd) and winger Surabuddin Mallick (62nd) put Tollygunge ahead, while skipper Subha Kumar (67th) reduced the margin of defeat for George Telegraph at Barasat Stadium in Kolkata.
Going into the match, Tollygunge coach Ranjan Chowdhury named an unchanged line-up from the last game while George Telegraph coach Ranjan Bhattacharya made only change by handing start to Gurpreet Singh replacing Arijeet Singh, who got marching orders in last match.
Tollygunge started briskly and kept the early pressure on their opponents with Alfred and Joel Sunday combining well upfront.
George Telegraph, on the other hand, employed slow build-up using short passes but could rarely breach the Tollygunge defense led by Karan Atwal and Gurtej Singh. The strike pair of Bayi Kamo Stephane and Sayan Dutta made few good moves but never threatened to break the Tollygunge resistance.
Tollygunge had the first chance to take the lead in the 19th minute, but Alfred failed to keep his effort on target off an Phoolchand Hembrom cross.
Meanwhile, George Telegraph, five minutes later, had a chance of their own when Stephane’s shot from Kumar’s pass missed the target by a few inches.
In the remainder of the half there was not much goal-bound action as the first -half ended goalless.
The second-half brought the best out of Tollygunge as they played an attacking game putting the rival defence under constant pressure. Ram Malik was introduced in the 46th minute replacing Reisangmei Vashum, and since then Tollygunge seized control over the proceedings.
Tollygunge surged ahead just eight minutes into the session when Alfred slotted a volley home from a low cross sent in by Sunday.
Nine minutes later Tollygunge doubled their lead after a swift move between skipper Surabuddin and Sunday enabled the former to slot one past the rival keeper Laltu Mondal.
George Telegraph’s response came five minutes later when Stephane and Rajib Shaw combined to set up Kumar who headed the ball into the net to cut the Tollygunge lead to 2-1.
Thereafter, both teams engaged in some end-to-end stuff but no more goals had been leaked in the match.
With this win, Tollygunge have 4 points from 2 matches, while George Telegraph have one after playing same number of matches.