By Debabrata Majumder
KOLKATA: Man of the Match Sankar Roy’s fine performance under the bar helped Peerless Sports Club hold Mohun Bagan to a barren draw in the ongoing CFL Premier Division – A at Mohun Bagan Ground on Monday.
Mohun Bagan had some good opportunities throughout the game but thanks to goalkeeper Sankar’s heroics at the post, Peerless managed to snatch a point from a much stronger opponent.
Going into the game, Mohun Bagan coach Sankarlal Chakraborty made only change to the starting lineup by handing defender Deepak Devrani his first start of the season replacing Tonmoy Ghosh.
In a game of equal exchanges, both sides created chances throughout the game but fell short of converting them in the final third.
The first half was fought evenly with neither team’s defense giving away the ball. Mohun Bagan, got off to a good start and had the first chance to go ahead, but Azharuddin Mallick’s shot lacked power.
Peerless too made inroads into the rival box with striker Ghanefo Kromah, who was a constant threat for the rival defense, had a couple of clear chances.
Kromah worked with perfect understanding with Rahim Nabi and the duo troubled the rival defence often but Mohun Bagan keeper Arnab Das Sarma was up to the task, produced some brilliant saves to deny Peerless as the first half ended scoreless.
After the change of ends, Mohun Bagan put up an aggressive performance with striker Darryl Duffy nearly finding the net in the 51st minute. But the Scot failed to keep his effort on target off a Tapan Maity corner.
Peerless retaliated almost immediately through Argha Chakraborty but the midfielder failed to direct it towards the goal.
Needing goal, Mohun Bagan threw new recruit Daniel Bidemi into the action. The Nigerian combined well with Duffy to create some half chances but were unable to break down the Peerless defense led by Eze Kingsley.
Around the 75th minute mark Mohun Bagan had another close chance thorugh Prabir Das who attempted a long range shot but Peerless narrowly escaped after a fine save mnade by Sankar.
The young shot-stopper produced some decent saves in the final quarter of the game to ensure a point for his team.
As result of this dissapointing performance Mohun Bagan stayed on second with 13 points from 5 games while Peerless are at fourth on 8 points from as many games.
Photo By Ujjal Sarkhel.
