Mohun Bagan aim for victory
TEAM HERALD
VASCO: United Sikkim Football Club’s hopes of survival are hanging by a thread and they need to get the full points against Salgaocar Football Club, at Tilak Stadium, here, Saturday. The kick-off is at 4 p.m.
United Sikkim are languishing at the bottom of the I-League ladder with 15 points from 22 matches. They have just four more matches to play and will need full points in at least three of their last four games to have a realistic chance of surviving the drop zone.
The next two teams above the relegation zone include Air India and Mohun Bagan, both of whom have 19 points each. Another slip up on Saturday in Goa and Baichung Bhutia’s dream team will be on the verge of relegation.
“The way we have played, we haven’t really deserved to lose or draw quite a few of our matches. We probably deserved to garner more points but that hasn’t happened for whatever reason,” United Sikkim coach, Nathan Hall had said after his team’s last game, a 5-0 demolition of Air India.
The victory over Air India, Sikkim’s first since Nathan Hall took charge, would have bolstered the visitors’ spirits but with just four matches left to be played, Sikkim will have a mountain to climb.
United Sikkim will surely try but it is unlikely that Salgaocar Football Club, playing at home, will be as easy as Air India.
Salgaocar are among the most difficult teams to play in Goa and David Booth’s side is also high on confidence after they put it across Prayag United Kolkata 1-0 in their last match at Tilak Maidan.
With Nigerian Gabriel Obatola back in the fold after serving a one-match suspension, Booth will have the luxury of fielding both of his foreign players upfront. The coach will, however, be forced to keep midfielder John Wilkinson in reserves since Brazilian defender Luciano Sobrosa, who scored the winner in the last game against Prayag United is likely to complete the foreign trio in the starting 11.
Salgaocar are placed ninth with 27 points from 23 matches.
The continuing success of their fabled strike power is making the Mohun Bagan coach Karim Bencherifa hope for an extension of his team’s winning form in the ongoing I-League. Mohun Bagan has been able to temporarily extricate themselves out of the depths winning three successive games.
With the striking combination of Nigerian Onyeka Okolie Odafa and Australian Tolgay Ozbey giving the team a run of success, the Mohun bagan camp sounded upbeat ahead of their 24th round match against Air India, at Kalyani Stadium, Kalyani, Saturday.
