Mohun Bagan worked on fitness and speed to put the host team on the mat for greater part of the game. Sony Norde and Balwant Singh showed fine opportunism by breaching the Salgaocar defence umpteen times.
Salgaocar enjoyed better ball possession in the first half but the visitors put up an aggressive performance after the break as they made inroads with repeated forays with Sony, who was a constant threat to the rival defence was denied by rival keeper Subrata on couple of occasions.
Subrata put up inspiring performance especially in the second half as he brought off at least three close saves although he conceded a goal in the 58th minute when he misjudged to collect the spinning ball from defender Gurjinder Singh’s clearance as he fell into the goal with the ball but referee Santosh Kumar disallowed for a foul on Balwant, who did not come in touch with the keeper.
Mohun Bagan now have four points from two matches while Salgaocar FC have two points from three matches.
The first half was fought evenly with neither teams’ defence giving away as they guarded their fort well. Salgaocar FC, who were looking for their first win after they lost against Royal Wahingdoh got off to a good start and had the first chance to forge ahead but Bikash Jairu, who was set up on the left by Douhou Pierre lacked power in his left-footer to trouble rival keeper Shilton Paul, who collected it.
Mohun Bagan, who took time to settle down, made inroads into the rival box with long ball and Sony, who was a constant threat for the rival defence had couple of clear chances to put his team up but first he shot out after he was put through by Manish Bhargav and later his attempt at the goal was blocked by rival defender.
Sony who trouble the rival defence whenever he had the ball with his speedy run was well intercepted by keeper Subrata, who came out in nick of time to deny a goal in the dying minutes of the first half.
Mohun Bagan after the change of ends put up an aggressive performance with Sony time and again posing danger and nearly found the net but the threat was handled well by the rival defence. Subrata too made a diving save to put out Pritam Kotal stiff grounder.
However, Salgaocar citadel finally fell in the 58th minute when Sony long lob dropped into the box and Salgaocar’s defender Gurjinder Kumar’s attempted clearance went spinning skyward, lurking Balwant looking to capitalise on the move saw keeper Subrata making a fumble of it on his first attempt to fall in his own goal along with the ball. But referee Santosh disallowed the goal and call for a foul against Balwant, who was standing close to him.
Mohun Bagan doing most of the probing in the second half had the best chance to collect full points when a cross from Sony from the left saw Augustin chesting the ball, but fell at the feet of Kastumi Yusa, who ballooned the ball over the bar infront of an open goal.
