Imphal: I-League leaders Mohun Bagan registered an emphatic 3-0 victory away from home against Neroca FC at the Khuman Lampak Stadium here on Thursday.
Nongdamba Naorem gave Mohun Bagan the lead in the 27th minute before creating the second goal for Papa Diawara in the 53rd minute.
Substitute Komron Tursunov added the third, deep into stoppage time, to seal the deal for the Mariners. Neroca head coach Gift Raikhan made just a solitary change to his previous match line-up, with Ronald Singh coming in for Zico Sekle, while his Mohun Bagan counterpart Kibu Vicuna named an unchanged eleven. Neroca had their first attempt against the run of play in the 16th minute, when a Marvin Phillip goal-kick found Boubacar Diarra, who, after seeing Mohun Bagan keeper Sankar Roy off his line, went for glory from the half-way line. His effort did not get the desired result as the ball gently nestled the top of the net, leaving Sankar a relieved man. In the 24th minute, Fran Gonzales sent VP Suhair with a textbook through ball down the right.
With only the keeper to beat, Suhair’s attempt ricocheted off the woodwork and fell to Diawara, who had a second crack on goal with an acrobatic scissor kick, but his audacious attempt sailed over the bar. With Mohun Bagan clearly running one-way traffic at this point, Neroca had started putting more men in their box, making it more challenging for Vicuna’s men to penetrate the final third. Nongdamba Naorem, with two orange shirts closing him down, released the ball to Joseba Beitia. With the ball at his feet, the Spaniard now had all the attention, which gave Naorem the time he needed to make the run inside the box.
Beitia flicked it towards Dhanachadra Singh who had read Naorem’s run, and squared it back to him. (PTI)
