I-League: Mohun Bagan aim to sustain winning momentum

KOLKATA: City football giants Mohun Bagan will look to continue their winning momentum when they take on a young Shillong Lajong side at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan here on Sunday.

Mohun Bagan shrugged off a derby defeat to East Bengal by registering an impressive away victory against champions Minerva in their previous encounter. They are sixth on the table with 12 points from eight games and need more wins to stand a chance for the title. Coach Sankarlal Chakraborty said on the eve of the match that the fact they haven’t won at home is worrying and they would look to rectify that starting Sunday.

“Winning the next match after the Derby has morally boosted us. Now, we are trying to maintain the winning momentum. We want three points to be in a good position on the league table,” Chakraborty said.

“We have not won a single match at our home ground. This is one of our disadvantages. Luck was not in our favour when we played the other games. We hope to turn that around tomorrow,” added the coach.

Lajong look hardly capable of denying Bagan a win on Sunday, given they have the worst defence of the league, letting in 22 goals in their eight games so far. That includes a 1-6 drubbing to debutants Real Kashmir FC.

That has almost made irrelevant their impressive at- tacking play, which has so far netted 10 goals, the same as Bagan have managed in the same number of games.

Coach Alison Kharsyntiew was forthright in his views ahead of the game saying: “Being honest, I am looking for development of these young players. The players have worked very hard and in some games have performed very well, but we are not winning games.”

“In four or five games we were lacking defence so we are working very hard on it. We hope to improve against Mohun Bagan tomorrow. Playing against Mohun Bagan is always very tough but we are aiming for all three points,” he added.

On paper, it will certainly be Lajong’s fragile and inexperienced defence against the likes of Mohun Bagan’s strike force of Dipanda Dicka and Henry Kisekka. Given the attacking instincts of the two sides, one can expect a lot of goals from this one. IANS