SHILLONG: Langsning FC’s chances of qualifying for next season’s I-League top tier suffered another blow on Wednesday after they failed to keep up their momentum, succumbing to Mohammedan Sporting 1-2 in a 2nd Division final round match at Bangalore Football Stadium.
This is the second successive defeat faced by Langsning here in the final round of the tournament.
They had earlier gone down to Mumbai Tigers 0-1 on Saturday.
It was the Shillong-based team that went into the lead in the 43rd minute of the game when Nigerian striker Joel Yinka Ayeni dribbled past two rival defenders and placed the ball into the back of the net, leaving no room for the opposition custodian Arnab Das Sharma to react to the shot.
They went into the break 1-0 up, but their joy was short-lived as Mohammedan equalised in the 52nd minute when unmarked Younes Balthaw neatly converted a cross from substitute Md Muktar.
The Kolkata side completed the tally four minutes later through a spot kick, awarded by referee Rahul Dsa after he caught L Devit Meetei bringing down Gouranga Dutta inside the box.
Taking the shot, Charles Dzisah made no mistake to find the back of the net and gave the Kolkata-based side a match winner.
With this win Mohammedan have collected four points from two matches.
After topping their group in the first round of the 2nd Division, Langsning are now struggling with zero points from their two matches.
They will need the best possible result in their remaining games to have any hope of qualifying.
On Friday they will take on Bhawanipore FC at 1:45.
Technical director of the team L Darlong said, “We played really good football but what happened in the defence line in the second half I cannot say.”